The Collaboration of Keys and Lances
by Servine Thistle
Summary: When Sora was trapped in a crystal petal by Naminé he was put to sleep. This allowed his Nobody, Roxas to do as he pleased. Now the Nobody is on the run from the Organisation. Now it's up to our new protagonists Cherrie and Will to find him and restore Sora's memories. (Disney worlds replaced with; Okami, FF4, Spyro 3, Tron, Hercules, Zelda, Toaru, DMC, Tales.) Co-writter-Willgm
1. Prologue- A new key bearer

_**Servine; Hello everyone and welcome to my new Fanfiction. This is going to be a collab between me and Willgm.**_

 _ **Willgm: Hey everyone, nice to be here so its great to meet you all.**_

 _ **Servine; FYI some chapters will be written by me and others will be by him-**_

 _ **Willgm: Hey!**_

 _ **Servine; What? They like my comedy stuff...**_

 _ **Willgm: You don't sound too confident there leafy.**_

 _ **Servine; I'm not a leaf and my stuff just needs more people to make it blossom.**_

 _ **Willgm: ... so you're not a leaf yet you're using a grass metaphor? Okay... whatever works for you.**_

 _ **Servine; OK, let's stop this before people complain like they did with my sister's collab story.**_

 _ **Willgm: Fair enough... not sure why I'm saying this but obviously we own none of the material used in this story other than the original story arcs and characters we bring in... as if that wasn't obvious to everyone.**_

 _ **Anyway, let the story begin!**_

Prologue- A new key bearer

Within the endless worlds of the multi-verse the former Keyblade master Yen Sid sat within the confines of his tower that laid within the worlds between. It had had been many years since he'd last wielded his blade however but to this day he still gave advice and guidance to the latest generation of key bearers.

Of course, for the last ten years other than his last apprentice, the king of Disney castle Mickey, the wielders of the ancient weapon had ceased to exist. Despite his many searches across the worlds from reading the stars until recently not a single wielder had appeared in his sights.

That of course was until the arrival of the boy from Destiny Islands; Sora. Despite the boy's young age and lack of experience he, along with the aid of the court wizard Donald and the captain on the knights Goofy had managed to defeat the man Ansem and save the worlds that had been destroyed from the heartless.

Now however a problem had occurred; last year the boy had travelled through the old Keyblade training academy called the Land Of Departure that was now known as Castle Oblivion. The journey had left him with his memories locked away behind a web of fake ones and so he had been placed into sleep while the nobody Naminé worked to restore the chain of memories that were woven into his heart.

While normally such a process, from what he understood of the girl's powers, should not have taken such a long length of time a problem had occurred that hadn't been foreseen that had wedged a gap in the restoration effort.

More specifically, two problems had originally existed but only one currently remained; both in the memories of all who knew her and the events at large. The first problem had been the girl Xion, a puppet created by Vexen, a member of Organisation XIII but she was now no more; therefore the problem with her was also no more.

That left only a single problem remaining; Sora's nobody; that which had been created when he'd released his heart to awaken the Princess Of Heart Kairi:

Roxas.

"Do you understand now what it is I wish of you?" Yen Sid finished his explanation of the situation and took his gaze towards the only other occupant in the room. She was a girl of 15 years with brown hair that fell to the middle of her back and Heterochromia eyes; one sky blue and one peach pink. She was dressed in a knee length peach dress- one that matched her eye- with black knee socks and shoes.

The girl had a semi-serious look on her face as she faced the aged wizard; something that didn't go well with the cute, innocent look she was going for with her outfit but to the girl things like that were the norm for her.

Her name was Cherrie Brave... and she was the latest of the Keyblade's chosen to be found.

"I understand. Basically, you want me to find this Roxas before this Organisation does as a favour to an old friend of both you and this King of yours right?"

The old wizard nodded. "Correct, as Riku is in no condition to find him with what he chose to do in order to capture him originally we are forced to ask for a new aid. If you wish you may choose to refuse this task I am giving you but-"

"I'll do it." Cherrie gave her answer without hesitation. "If this Sora person is that important to the worlds then getting him up is in everyone's best interest right? With that being the case helping in any way I can is the lest I can do in repaying him for his hard work."

Yen Sid gave out a rare smile at the young girl's answer. While like Sora she knew nothing in terms of real combat and had no real experience in facing the enemies she's sure to encounter he was willing to give the girl this chance to grow; as both a wielder and as a person.

Yen Sid had found the girl a month ago on a rather forgotten world where she was ridiculed for her magical abilities that came naturally from the Keyblade's guidance. It was actually this magic that had turned her eye pink but that wasn't a tale he was aware of in terms of details and he had no interest in digging up old wounds. Because of this ridicule the girl had been alone for the majority of her life.

It was a result of this that caused the girl's current mindset; she was the type of person that would always rush in to help those in need so as to ensure they wouldn't end up alone as she had been. While the old wizard saw it as an admirable trait in the wrong situations it could lead to her becoming injured or worse; being killed.

It was Yen Sid's hope that this journey to find Roxas would lead to her being more considering towards her own safety over others; or rather, ensure that she doesn't just rush ahead to anothers aid and forget that her own life is just as important.

"If that is your decision then go forth; find Roxas and convince him to assist in Sora's recovery." With that declaration the young girl gave a mock salute before leaving the room.

Cherrie was excited, she was going on an adventure! Ever since discovering that there were more worlds than just her own a month ago she'd had a month long consecutive dream of just what she'd do when she arrived at somewhere new. In one dream she was trekking through a wild jungle with a group of treasure hunters in search for some legendary treasure, in another she was a mermaid swimming through the vast oceans, in another she was part of a pirate gang.

The list went on and on but now wasn't the time to think on them, Cherrie had finally made her way down to the bottom of the tower and was now looking towards her vehicle of transportation for the coming weeks or months- the Gummi ship _ **.**_ The Gummi ship was built into the shape of a modern plane with two missile launchers set onto both wings with cannons on the bottom just before the ramp. It was painted in a fine green with layers of blue stripes along the wings.

Cherrie thought the choice of colour was a bit too colourful for something that was supposed to be kept on the ground; especially if the world they landed on was barren or not technologically far enough to create planes __but she ultimately shrugged at the colour scheme and made her way inside.

Her ultimate assessment was that it was much, _much_ bigger on the inside than on the outside. Somehow in the space they had they'd managed to stuff in three bedrooms that each had their own bathrooms, a kitchen, a lounge that contained a TV, a table, several armchairs and a sofa, and what seemed to be a gaming room of all things that had both video games and old styled boardgames. There was also a training simulation room that could create over a thousand different battle scenarios at the push of a button.

All and all it was rather impressive in Cherries eyes and she loved it. After she'd made her check of all the facilities the ship had to offer she made her way to the cockpit, sat in the captains chair and started punching buttons... no really, there was no steering wheel or anything; the whole control board was nothing but buttons which looked like it was part of a controller for a flying simulator. Cherrie simply shrugged after looking at it with a blank expression for a moment and activated the launch mechanism she'd read from the convenient manual that'd been left next to the controls and set off to her first destination; set to arrive at around half an hour.

The chosen world? A place called Hollow Bastion.

(space break)

Meanwhile, on the aforementioned world, a young man at the age of 18 with short black hair and hazel eyes dressed in leather armour, steel gloves and boots along with a mythril vest over the armour gazed up towards the sky, his trusty lance swung over his left shoulder and a pendant with a carved rune on it hung around his neck. Small wounds could be seen covering his body from head to toe but he seemed to pay them little heed as he simply kept his gaze upwards.

More specifically, his gaze was looking towards the top of the other end of the rock face he himself was leaning against. There, standing with his head held high and a blood red lance in his hands, was a man that screamed with the presence of a feral hound; his bloodlust was easily felt even from the distance the young man was from him.

That person the young man looked towards was his enemy, that person was someone that had been a part of a gang that had cost the young man everything he had other than the cloths on his back and the lance- one of two- in his hands.

Needless to say the enemy before him held the other.

"Really, to think you'd follow me even here where those Heartless could attack any time; does this old thing really mean that much to you?" Asking this the enemy gestured to the crimson lance in his hand.

"..." The young man remained silent.

"...Have it your way then, let's just get this over with."

The words acted as a signal; as soon as the last syllable was spoken the two combatants moved to destroy one another with all their strength.

(space break)

A girl that longed to help those in need at the expense of her own life.

A young man driven to avenge what had been lost to the hands of others.

Two such people were those that had no right to interact, let alone meet, and get to know one another. They were two that were part of different worlds in the figurative sense and yet... and yet now, two such people would become a part of the same life. It is a meeting that will deliver both lessons of friendship and darkness. Will they learn from one another how to fix themselves or will the meeting only serve to break apart the two even more?

Fate is a fickle thing and destiny is something one chooses for themselves; with that being the case the future of the two is shrouded in mystery.

Come, let us see how these pair of heroes overcome their struggles together.

 _ **Willgm: Well that's it for the prologue. In case no one could guess who was the one writing that chapter it was me and it'll probably be me for the next two or possibly three.**_

 _ **Servine; Hey! When do I get a turn!?**_

 _ **Willgm: When we start the world after Hollow Bastion remember? You were the one who wrote them order in which we do the worlds in case you forgot.**_

 _ **Servine; Wrong! That was you!**_

 _ **Willgm: ...Oh yeah. Oh well, doesn't matter right? Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this little prologue- by my standards anyway- so please stay tuned for chapter 1 that'll be coming soon.**_

 _ **Servine; Be sure to R &R everyone!**_

 _ **Willgm: What she said, so till then; bye!**_

 _ **Servine; Bye!**_


	2. Chapter 1- the two heroes meet

_**Willgm: Hey everyone, my turn to write still so I'll just skip the pleasantries- and the disclaimer cause we all know it- and just say lets get started on the Hollow Bastion arc.**_

 _ **K? Well then, start!**_

Chapter 1: the two heroes meet

By the time the Gummi ship was properly docked onto a landing pad- surprising as that actually sounded but at the same time making sense when one thought about it- Cherrie practically leapt out of the door and onto the ground with a rather hyper grin on her face.

"Time for adventure!" With that she ran off to explore the bustling town that was set up close by without even bothering to lock up.

She was a rather hyperactive girl when excited wasn't she?

(space break)

While this was going on that young man made his way out of the chasm he'd faced his latest enemy in. Blood that wasn't his dripped from his clothes and his golden lance that he held within his left hand. In his right the crimson spear that his enemy had used- had stolen from his family- was tightly gripped in his right.

"Three down, three to go." He muttered to himself as he made his way through a narrow walkway created between two rock faces and up to an open but small platform of decorated rock that he figured had once served as a centre piece for a large running fountain.

When he spotted a rather inviting blown off piece of debris from the central structure that had been the aforementioned fountain the young man allowed himself a chance to rest and found himself sitting on that debris before his mind could catch up.

Not the most glamorous of rest zones but beggars can't be choosers right?

The young man allowed a small sigh to escape his lips as he turned his gaze towards the newly retrieved crimson weapon; a family heirloom that had been passed down in his family since it had been created by one of his old ancestors with the assistance of the strongest magic user at the time. In the hands of anyone but his family it was just an sturdier than normal but still ordinary lance.

When a member of his family used it however... the ancient magic that had been infused into the weapon when it was made could be activated. The reason only a member of his family could use it was through an old use of a blood oath that bound the magic inside the weapon to his family's blood only.

Anyway, the lances power was, in its simplicity, to create a phenomenon akin to that of a lance spoken of in legend; a lance wielded by a warrior that fought with the ferocity of a hound that would always kill the target with a stab through the heart; reversing the concept of cause and effect to do so.

The lances name was Gae Bolg, and it was a spear that would win its owner any fight if they relied on its power.

Looking at the spear brought a slight frown to the young man's face, as the memories of its origin appeared so did the reason he'd had to kill that person that he'd faced just a few minutes ago. It was five years ago, he and his family lived on their own home world as they had for hundreds of years; serving as its guardian from anything or anyone that would seek its ruin. This had included the Heartless, monster native to their world and any sort of tyrannical group that seeked it for their own use.

That tradition had ended when a group named 'the devil's hand' had, on a complete whim, decided to destroy their family for pure fun. Memories of steel meeting steel, of a raging fire, of loved one's cries of pain and agony as they were ruthlessly cut down and complete helplessness to stop it filled the young man's mind with the scenes as vividly as though they'd happened only yesterday.

Things were different now though, now it was he that would slaughter them 'for fun'. Three- the weakest if he recalled from his memories but still not as strong as the current him- had already fallen to his weapon- an ordinary, if not sturdier than most, lance covered in gold.

Only three remained now before his vengeance of his family could be completed; all he could do now was wait until he found them.

To do that he had a magical artefact given to him by a mouse that claimed to be a king that could allow him to teleport between worlds.

That artefact was called a star shard.

"...Hmm?" the young man exited his thoughts when another presence entered the area. Taking his gaze to where his instincts called to him he spotted a boy with spiky blond hair and blue eyes dressed in a black coat. The boy seemed... off to the lance user; it was as if he was both there and yet not there at the same time as if- at least a part of him- was _not there_.

He felt like he was both looking at a person and yet someone else's after-image or shadow.

All and all it was quite peculiar.

"...What brings someone like you down here kiddo? You look like you're running away from something." The spiky haired boy looked towards the young man in slight surprise- as if he only just noticed him for the first time- before almost subconsciously entering a combat stance and... did a giant key just appear in his hands?

"First off drop the key kid, I'm neither here to hurt you nor are you going to hurt anyone with that ineffective thing, and second; while I can admire those instincts of yours you're using them in at the wrong time so just stand down." He didn't know if it was his words or the casual manner in which he said them but the boy instantly relaxed and dismissed his 'weapon'- with it vanishing in a small flash of light.

"Sorry about that, I've been... well let's just say I haven't been able to trust anyone I meet recently and end it at that."

The young man shrugged. "Fine by me kiddo, I know the feeling quite well."

"I see... er, are you okay? There's-"

"Not mine."

"Oh... so you killed someone then?" An eyebrow rose at the boy's almost nonchalant response at saying that. Not many people his age would react like that- then again he didn't seem _that_ much younger than him but that was besides the point.

"Yeah, him and his 'friends' decided one day five years ago butchering my family would be fun."

"...Oh, I'm-"

"Save your breath, nothing for you to apologize for so don't bother." The spiky haired boy just nodded after a moment before continuing on his walk to where he himself had just come from.

"Wouldn't go that way unless you want to see the corpse boy; hasn't had the time to turn into ashes yet so it won't be a pretty sight."

"...Thanks for the warning." Nevertheless though the mysterious boy still left in that direction, not bothering to look back as he did so.

The young man simply shrugged, disinterested in the boys objective and exited the area after a getting back to his feet; not even realising that that meeting would become a significant moment that would define his life for the next few months.

(space break)

Cherrie made her way through the marketplace with a spring in her step and a smile on her face as well as a small bag in her hand that held the most beautiful charm she'd ever seen. It was a small bracelet with the stages of the moon of them- each represented by a different gem- that came with a small charm of protection that would buff up her abilities a small bit when the moon was visible in the sky.

It had cost a pretty penny to buy but to the usually broke Cherrie- normally because of stunts like this- it was a worthy buy that she was proud of... even if it did take up ALL of her funds.

As previously stated, totally worth it in the inexperienced girls eyes.

"AHH!" Suddenly a scream rang out through the air, a few metres in-front of Cherrie people of various ages and genders were running in a frightened fashion with clear terror showing on their faces.

It became apparent why just a few seconds later.

On the ground where the pedestrians had been a moment ago a large pond of the colour black had appeared on the ground. A moment later however that pond expended itself towards the sky and split into small, rather adorable- in Cherrie's eyes- creature with yellow eyes and two antennae on its scalp.

It was commonly known as a shadow; the weakest, most common from of heartless that could be found in the worlds and now around ten of them had appeared within a public place looking for a meal.

Cherrie narrowed her eyes slightly at the creatures and extended her right arm.

That was all she did.

That was all she did but... in the next instant within the space between her palm and her extended fingers a weapon that shined with the colour orange appeared in her hands. The weapon came to about 35 cm in length and possessed several spikes that stuck out from the blade.

In many ways the weapon could be compared to that of a spiked bat except by its orange blade and purple handle. There was no guard.

Perhaps the most curious thing though about the weapon wasn't its bizarre shape or colour scheme but the... lack of power that came from the blade. An expert in magic would be able to conclude that the weapons full potential had yet to be reached by its wielder.

In other words, it was the user itself that was holding back the Keyblade's true strength.

Cherrie of course knew this, during their original meeting Yen Sid had given that very assessment when he'd first looked upon it.

It was because of _that_ incident that the potential wasn't being used she wagered. Yes, that made sense to her...

Oh well... there was nothing she could do about it now. Forcing the thoughts of her weapons power away for the time being Cherrie moved towards the nearest shadow and took her first hit.

The moment Cherrie swung her blade towards the shadow the creature sank back into the ground while a second shadow jumped forwards and swung its claws.

Cherrie franticly jumped out of the way and ended up hitting a nearby stand with her head. A dull pain flashed through her system but the girl ignored it in favour of rolling to the side via survival instincts telling her to move. This ended up saving her life a moment later when another shadow attacked the position she'd previously been it.

Cherrie clicked her tongue in annoyance of her lack of experience in combat before making it back to her feet in a hurry and throwing a random swing out that smashed through the body of a shadow.

She didn't have time to celebrate her first victory though as she immediately vaulted over the counter of another small to avoid another swipe. She swung her weapon at the offending shadow an instant later.

Two down.

Vaulting over the counter again Cherrie moved to slam the torso of two more shadows that were close by. Noticing an attack out of the corner of her eye she quickly moved to dodge another swipe from the creatures and delivered a lunge like she was using a rapier into the body of another shadow.

Five down.

Cherrie allowed a small smile to cover her face as she jumped over the body of another shadow and slashed it in the back before it could react while sending out a kick to knock over another shadow.

She rolled to safety as one came up from the ground to strike her back and ended it an instant later.

Three left.

The smile on her face grew. She was winning; seven out of ten were gone and the rest weren't putting much of a challenge. She would win this; she would finish the rest off and prove that she could handle herself in a fight.

In that moment she made a mistake. The moment she became assured of her victory she ended up stepping on something and fell onto her back, dropping her weapon as she did so. Her opponents didn't waste their golden opportunity and simultaneously leaped onto her downed form.

To put it in perspective she could easily still win; she could easily call her blade back with cleave the three creatures on half but remember; she was both inexperienced on a battlefield and on top of that a person that was still learning how to properly use her weapon so that option never came to her mind.

What came up first and foremost was-

 _'No!'_ She immediately rejected that idea. Magic was something she was rather talented for if what Yen Sid said was correct but... magic had been what had changed the colour of and near enough blinded her left eye while simultaneously causing the injury of several others in the process. It had been an incident that had caused her to be avoided like the plague by those in her home town and eventually had her thrown onto the streets as her parents were too terrified to be within the same house as her.

With such a misfortunate, tragic event her reaction to the idea was logical in terms of her psyche but in reality it was nonsensical; so what if it had caused her hell in her younger years? If she didn't use it here she would die so the only option was to do so.

And yet she didn't, the ghost of her past overcame the desire to protect herself and so...

and so...

"Honestly, just what was that pathetic performance?" The shadows were immediately sliced through by a crimson lance and vanished from existence. In their place a certain young man stood with a somewhat bored expression on his face with his golden lance hanging over his shoulder.

A moment later though he disappeared only to reappear again a metre or so away with his weapon slashing through another heartless that had just appeared.

The young man suddenly clicked his tongue. The instant after that ten more shadows appeared from the ground and all jumped in synch to vanquish their new opponent.

However...

"How boring." The lance user merely performed a quick 180 spin with his lance held out which erased the ten opponents with ease. He stood in that position for a few moments, as if he were waiting for a second wave, but eventually lowered his lance when nothing appeared.

"You okay girl?"

Cherrie was certain her breathing stopped for a second. For a moment her vision held nothing but the warrior before her and she found herself...

She found herself...

"That was so cool!" She found herself overcome with excitement. This person, whoever he was, could teach her how to fight like that! He could teach her and then join her on her mission to look for Roxas and-

"Not interested girl." His sudden interruption made her jump back in surprised. Could this guy read minds!?

"No, you're just saying your thoughts out loud."

"...Oh." A flush of embarrassment hit the girl and she suddenly found herself unable to look her saviour in the eye.

"...Why not?" she asked eventually after a few awkward silent moments.

"I have better things I can do than to babysit a total rookie or help said rookie find this Roxas character. Sorry kid but-"

"I'm not a kid! Besides, you don't look that much older than me mister lancer!"

The young man released a yawn at that. "Yes yes, I'm sorry I'm sorry now get off your ass and head back home or head back to our hunt; leave me out of it." With that he turned to leave the girl he'd just saved alone before-

"Hold it, mind telling me what happened here before you head off?" The young man stopped in his tracks at the sight of a man with brown hair with a scar on his face and a sword that oddly had the barrel of a revolver attached to it above the hilt.

"...Lovely, just what I wanted to deal with."

 _ **Willgm: Well that's it for this chapter. Sorry if it's too short for your tastes but I've got a limit on how long I'm allowed to write so as to not make them so long that they make Servine's chapters look puny in comparison. Next chaps... gonna have our two heroes meeting up with the restoration committee and getting dragged into helping them with something.**_

 _ **What is it you ask? You'll have to wait to find out.**_


	3. Chapter 2- A deal is made

_**Willgm: Hey everyone, welcome back. Not really gonna waste your time here with me talking so lets just get on with it.**_

Chapter 2: A deal is made

Cherrie looked towards the person that had saved her just a few minutes ago with a curious expression; he only seemed to be a few years older than her yet he was clearly experienced in combat and held himself in a way she'd never seen anyone do so before.

Though the fact that he was currently looking annoyed towards the man that had introduced himself as Leon didn't give credit that he was a person that liked going out of his way to help people.

Really, what kind of person wouldn't want to help others when they needed it?

That naïve girl thought this even though it was abnormal for a regular human to think this.

The three of them were walking through one of the streets in the borough in order to make their way to the house that belonged to a man named Merlin that served as a headquarters for the members of the Hollow Bastion restoration committee. It was a group that dedicated themselves to bringing back the still healing world to what it had once been.

Cherrie thought it was a lovely goal and one she would happily work to make a reality.

She was a person that would give her all into helping others after all.

The boy that had saved her on the other hand...

"I've already given you what you wanted to know," he said with an aggravated tone towards the committee member that had arrived at the scene in the market place to deal with the heartless they'd taken out. "With that done you've no reason to hold me up... with that being the case let go of me or I'll remove the arm."

To explain, after the lance user had, reluctantly, told him what had happened between the two of them and the heartless Leon had insisted that they both accompany him to the committee's HQ so as to gain a proper look at the situation regarding the heartless. The boy had refused and attempted to leave when the older male grabbed him by the shoulder and forcibly dragged him with them.

Cherrie had of course followed without a complaint.

"...You're a good fighter, from what I saw when I got to the market anyway, so having someone like you assisting us in this problem would be beneficial."

"For you maybe, I have no incentive to help you or your committee deal with these weak things that even a rookie can take out in one hit." The lancer's gaze momentarily turned to Cherrie's at that.

"Isn't helping innocent people a good enough incentive?" Cherrie asked this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. For a person that had chosen to put others above themselves the idea that something couldn't do the same was a foreign concept to her.

The boy shattered the girls belief in a single sentence. "What kind of idiot would willingly help another person without getting anything in return?"

"...What?" As if she'd been slapped Cherrie froze and looked towards the young man in shock. It didn't make sense... it didn't make sense... it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense it didn't make sense!

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!" As if a damn had been busted open anger unthought of came from the girl. Leon gave a surprised look while the nameless young gave no visible reaction.

Instead...

"What doesn't? The human race is, in its very nature, selfish and one that only looks after itself. If such a person that helped people simply because it was the right thing to do existed..." He stopped there, not because of the glare he was being sent affected him... but because his lips refused to say what would come next.

 _'If such a person existed... where were they when my family was slaughtered?'_

Those were the unspoken words that echoed through his head, ones that would never reach the light of day.

"We're here." Leon's voice acted as a cry of reprieve to the shell-shocked girl and an increase to the headache the young man was developing. Not evening bothering to take a look at the houses exterior the unlikely pair walked through the door and came to face a small group of figures.

"Hey Leon, these two the volunteers you mentioned you'd be collecting?" A girl with short black hair dressed in the garb of a ninja walked up to trio with a grin on her face. "Hi you two, I'm Yuffie. Welcome to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee."

Cherrie gave the energetic girl a wave and a hello while the young man gave only a small wave before looking over to the rest of the group. Standing around a computer terminal was a man with blond hair in a white shirt sat down on the chair in-front of the monitor, a woman with brown hair in a pink dress and an man dressed as a wizard.

"Quite, good timing." The wizard walked up to Cherrie and gave a satisfied nod. "Yes, with the girls potential and the boys combat experience things should be wrapped up rather nicely."

The wizards words caused the young man to raise an eyebrow. "Wrap what up? As far as I'm aware there aren't any problems that need me here." Saying this he pulled his captive arm out of Leon's grasp and made his way to the door.

"Now now, hold on a minute my boy." The wizard immediately teleported in a puff of smoke to block the lance users path. "While I'm sure this may not seem to concern you I'm sure you'll agree that the more help we receive with the situation the better the outcome correct?"

"..." The young man said nothing, merely giving the wizard a gesture to continue.

"Well you see, its come to our attention that an army of heartless is currently being lead to the town from the sight of the old castle that had been occupied by a dark sorceress by the name of Maleficent." The old wizard- that reminded the young man of a man named Merlin he'd once encountered on another world- explained this with a serious expression on his face. "As you can see we possess only three actual fighters here- four if you decide to count me as Aerith here cannot fight." He gestures to the brown haired woman who smiles lightly. "With that being the case we will require all the help we can get in protecting the town." The old wizard

finished his explanation and gave the male a knowing look as he waited for his response.

"...I see; I understand the situation but again, what does this have to do with me? I have no connection to this place to give a crap about what happens to it so unless you can give me a reason to care you're on your own."

Silence ruled the room upon the lancers answer. Leon furrowed his brow slightly at hearing the young man's selfishness, Yuffie looked like she'd just been told her pet cat had just died, Aerith held a look of sadness on her face, the blond man openly glared and the wizard looked disappointed.

As for Cherrie...

"How can you be so selfish!?" She was pissed again. "These people need your help and you'll spit at their plea!?"

The young girls glare could probably slice through steel but the young man stood undeterred like a titanium wall. "Like I said earlier, the human race is by nature selfish. If you want to get things done in this universe you have to work for it; in this case of this give me a reason to care about these people that I don't even know."

His eyes sent a challenge to the angered girl and the look of amusement on his face served only to infuriate her more. How could such a person like this guy even exist!?

"You want a reason huh? Fine! If I have to I'll pay you with a favour, whatever you want from me and I'll do it in exchange for your help here."

An eyebrow rose. "'Anything' huh? Little girls naïve of the world shouldn't use such phrasing when striking a deal. What if I were a person that got off on people suffering through the worst humanity had to offer huh? Would you go through that just to help these people you don't know?"

"Yes." There wasn't any hesitation in her voice.

If it was to protect others Cherrie would happily throw herself into hell and back, suffer through the embodiment of pain and death and would even kill gods if the need arose.

To Cherrie Brave, her life held no real meaning to herself. She was a willing tool that would protect those around her from anything; be it the Heartless, monsters, demons, other humans...

Even herself.

With that being the case, her response was the only conclusion that could be given from her.

"...You really are a broken one aren't you?" The young man muttered something under his breath that Cherrie couldn't hear.

And then...

He laughed.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" He laughed with such force that he fell to the ground even as he released the sound from his throat.

It wasn't a demeaning laugh though... it was one of pure amusement, as if he'd just heard the funniest joke of his life.

It was actually the first time he'd shown emotion since their meeting and so threw the determined girl for a loop.

"W-what's so funny!?"

The young man ignored her- or maybe he didn't actually hear her?- as he just kept on laughing.

...After a minute or so the noise finally stopped and the lancer returned to his feet.

"Alright girl," he said finally. "If you're that determined... then you have yourself a deal." His face contained a small smile on his lips and a light that hadn't been there previously shone in his eyes as he held out a hand for the girl to shake. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am William Curell. It is a pleasure to meet you."

...Cherrie silently gaped at the complete personality chance of the you- _Will_ for a few moments before a goofy smile appeared on her face and her ferociously shook the extended hand. "Cherrie Brave, lets get along from now on okay!?"

With that the deal that would bind the two together for the following months was made.

 _ **Willgm: Okay, that's a wrap. Sorry that this chap is slightly shorter than the last two but really, what more was there to say here? Next chaps gonna deal with the army- and no, its not**_ **that** _ **army of heartless that we're talking about here- and saying goodbye to Hollow Bastion for now.**_

 _ **Gonna be interesting seeing our two heroes fight alongside each other despite their opposite ideologies huh?**_

 _ **Anyway, that's it for now guys so till the next chap comes out I'll be seeing ya.**_

 _ **...By the way, what the heck happened to Roxas?**_


	4. Chapter 3- flames of battle part 1

_**Willgm: Hey, just stopping in to say hi... well that's that.**_

 _ **As you can tell from the title things didn't finish the way I planned it to and I ended up going over the word limit Servine set me. Because of that I've had to split this chapter up into two parts.**_

 _ **Not much else to say here so lets just get on with it.**_

 _ **Edit: scratch that, three parts**_

Chapter 3: Trust is born through the flames of battle part 1

"...How boring." Will muttered this under his breath just loud enoughfor his new partner to hear. In response to his complaining the brown haired girl gave a role of the eyes and patted the older warrior on the shoulder.

"Ah quit complaining Will, we have to wait for our signal from the others before we go off and get in there ourselves."

To be clear this was the third time the pair had had this very exchange. It seems the lancer user was used to simply charging in without relying on another's aid to win his fights; something that had worked seeing as he usually only dealt with fifty mindless opponents- as he called the Heartless- or one on one fights where he relied on his trained instincts and his 'runic magic' to win the day.

Basically, the lancer had never been a part of a major operation like this before so the patience that was required eluded him.

For Cherrie on the other hand she was perfectly willing to wait as long as need be. As an self-admitting rookie when it came to battle and fighting in general she was more than happy to follow the plan that had been set by Leon and the others.

"...As you keep telling me again and again."

"Then stop repeating the beginning of the conversation then~" Will merely blinked once at the smile she gave at the end of that comment before turning his attention to the view outside the bailey walls. That was the unlikely pairs current location.

The 'plan'- something that Will had inwardly scoffed at once hearing- was a relatively simple one. After Merlin- he'd rose an eyebrow when he'd heard the old man's name- had sent his familiar- a rather rude owl named Archimedes- to scout out the full force of the incoming army and had been briefed through their contract of its size- something that had been calculated to be around 5-10000 Heartless overall- the small group had selected on specific spots from where they'd be attacking the enemy force.

Leon had gone on along the furthest at the canyon he'd fought his earlier opponent in in order to get an attack against the oppositions vanguard along with the help of a other individual he'd called for earlier.

Yuffie was moving over the various close edged rocks with very small spaces so as to ambush the creatures from above with her throwing stars.

Cid- yes, even that computer junkie was capable of fighting- was taking up the sight of the old fountain as it was an enclosed space with limited mobility for ground forces. Something that was perfect for someone who used a spear.

Aerith was currently leading people to safe houses that had been made around the city but she was eventually going to come and help as a support with protective spells and healing.

Merlin was setting up traps around the entirety of the space between the city walls and where the heartless currently were; which was the sight of the old castle but that was going to quickly changing when the first of the traps were sprung.

As for the two of them... at the moment they were waiting for when the fighting was going to start. As Cherrie was a Keyblade wielder the heartless were going to focus their attention on her when she appeared; with that being the case their role was to lure the heartless into the traps by using their instinctual fear of the Keyblade against them.

She was essentially going to play the part of the pied piper. Will's job was simply to make sure that she was protected when she brought in a large hoard.

There in lied Will's problem, the preparations were taking WAY TOO DAMN LONG!

...Oh well, he'll just have to stomach the wait.

"...Hey rookie."

"I told you to call me Cherrie."

"'Till you prove yourself you'll always be rookie around me rook." He openly smirked at the girls annoyed glare in response to his words. "Anyway... you mentioned you were looking for this Roxas guy right?" Cherrie gave a quick nod. "Why? What reason you got that involves looking for him?"

"...I guess I can tell you." She cheery girl said after a few moments of thinking- inwardly causing her partner to call her naïve at trusting someone she didn't know with some clearly important info. "The guy that found me back home and told me about my Keyblade said he's needed to wake up this guy called Sora who saved all the worlds from darkness last year."

"Never heard of him."

"You're not supposed to know him; every memory connected to him was erased a year ago after his own got fractured... or was it rewritten? Ah, I can't remember properly!" Cherrie began to sweat as the wording escaped her which brought her to start clawing at her hair in frustration.

The sight actually managed to get a small laugh from the more experienced of the two.

"Anyway!" the girl said after a few minutes of hair pulling, making her hair look like a messed up bird's nest. "His memories weren't in any condition to let him meet anyone he knew so he was put to sleep so... let's just say a certain someone could get to work in fixing them. Roxas... to put it simply he possesses the remaining memories that Sora needs to wake up and so, since the original person that was supposed to do it can't due to reasons I'm not going to get into, they've sent me to find him instead."

Cherrie took a single deep after the long explanation. "Get it?"

"..." Will didn't respond, his brain was working through the info dump he'd just experienced to get a proper grasp on what he'd been told. After going through it in his head he managed to get the gist of everything and the girl's motivations on why she wanted his help earlier.

To say it again she had no experience in combat. While that might not normally be considered a problem the fact that she'll- probably if not definitely- need to go through multiple worlds before she finally managed to catch her target.

It was highly likely that she'll have to fight as least a tenth of the numbers of Heartless that they'll be facing today across each of those worlds on her own.

With that being the case...

"There you are!" The lance user was taken out of his thoughts by the voice of Archimedes, who was puffing out its chest in clear exhaustion. "Leon gave the all clear, get going!" With that the familiar flew back into the city; probably back to Merlin's so that it could rest.

"...Its time huh?"

Will nodded. "Yeah, do try and keep up rookie; it'd be a pain to have to save your ass every five seconds."

"Bet I'll be saving your neck more!"

The lancer laughed. "You're green girl, just focus on keeping your own hide safe for now... lets go." With that the duo moved to reach the heart of the battlefield.

(space break)

It only took a few minutes to determine that they were fighting a desperate battle to the death. The instant the two entered the sight of the old fountain they'd had to pull Cid out of a deadly situation with a hundred or so heartless that came in groups of twenty at a time with more coming all the time. The heartless had taken the shape of knights with swords on their right arm, shadows, giant spiked balls that could jump up high and many more.

Will had taken immediate command of the pair, shouting advice to both Cherrie and Cid on where to stand and how to defend while simultaneously facing at least ten heartless on his own at every instant. In contrast Cherrie was constantly facing five and Cid dealt with three or four.

Cid was actually showing decent skill with his pole-arm weapon, capable of using it to pierce a spiked ball shaped heartless while swinging it horizontally against the weaker shadows. Cherrie was happily either bludgeoning the creatures to death or thrusting it through their chests.

As for Will...

"Heh, pathetic!" he was like a graceful dancer on the stage that was battle. Using one spear to block the swing from a knight like heartless he used the other to bring both it and the surrounding Heartless to their knees before a quick 360 spin removed all their heads. The next instance he was practically gliding as he moved to the next set of foes.

He never stopped moving. Slowly, little by little, he broke through the line of almost never ending heartless until he reached the entrance to the fountain area. It was only then...

That he kicked a nearby heartless into the empty area next to him before activating a runic array on his shoes that allowed him to jump long distances.

The moment after he did that the heartless exploded as a bolt of lightning tore it to shreds and then preceded to _jump_ from one heartless to another until they all vanished from sight around the fountain entrance.

What had been activated had been a trap set by Merlin, more specifically it was a stored chain lightning spell that was designed to activate once something stood on it.

The reason Will had jumped out of the way had been because the spell had no friend or foe mechanic; meaning that it would have attacked indiscriminately until all available targets were gone.

It was simply that type of destruction spell.

"...That was some spell." Will muttered praise to the old wizard under his breath before turning to Cherrie who'd just finished mopping up the heartless had hadn't been close enough to be hit by the chain lightning.

"We're done here rookie, lets take the chance to move forward." Cherrie merely gave a nod for there was no room to argue. The pair gave Cid a quick goodbye and made their way onward into the enclosed rock formations where Yuffie had been stationed.

It took around ten seconds before the pair were overcome with battle again. The chain lightning trap had only granted the smallest of reprieves from the fight.

(space break)

Meanwhile, unknown to the pair of fighters, a certain spiky haired boy was fighting his own battles. Roxas was breathing out lightly while the smallest brand of sweat fell from his brow as he continuously swung his key shaped blade through the heartless bodies while occasionally unleashing a volley of fireballs and other types of magic at an airborne opponent.

The young nobody had been battling on his own for the past half hour; a while since he'd left the sights of the lance user. During that time he'd beaten no less than a thousand heartless and it was slowly draining on his stamina.

Roxas moved to block an incoming strike from a knight-like-heartless while delivering a kick to its legs to knock it over in order to block an attack from the back from another one. He quickly threw the blade off his own before pivoting to face it and slicing it in half. He then proceeded to move forward in that direction in accordance to the incoming wave.

The familiar pattern of blocking, dodging and striking flowed through the small battlefield as one by one the heartless that had appeared were dealt with in a quick fashion so that they wouldn't overwhelm him by sheer numbers.

Heartless were true monsters in a large groups was the true morale of this battle.

Regardless, in a few minutes the creatures were dealt with and Roxas allowed himself to take a quick breather. Leaning against a nearby wall of rock the young boy fell to the ground while breathing heavily.

He was exhausted, he couldn't keep up the constant pace that he was going at for much longer.

"Yo, glad to see you're still alive and kicking." At the sound of a slightly familiar voice Roxas turned his head sharply to discover a certain lancer looking back with a look of curiosity on his face.

"Oh, its you..."

"Yep, got dragged into helping the people here defend their home from these weaklings that consider themselves a threat." Will said this while waving his families lance around almost nonchalantly in the air.

The next second the crimson weapon blocked a stray blast of rock that came from above. Will gave a mere raised eyebrow before shrugging and looking above where a group of Heartless were about to jump down on top of the pair.

"How irritating." In response he simply spun the lance around in his hand, continually increasing the speed until it became a red ring of death that sliced through the falling heartless like butter.

Will gave a simple yawn in response to the almost comical victory before sheathing the golden spear in his other hand and offering it to the collapsed nobody.

"C'mon, better to stick in a group in this situation then go off alone; even I'll admit that."

"...Sure." The spiky-haired teen gave a nod and accepted the hand.

"C'mon then, the rest of the gang are this way." Not even bothering to release the hand he'd grabbed the older male dragged the key bearer to another location.

That is until...

"Will! There you are!" Bellowing out like an idiot Cherrie ran up to the two before stopping a few feet in-front of them to catch her breath. The young girl was covered in a few scrapes and bruises and her cloths were slightly ripped.

In contrast Will was neither feeling the least bit tired and his cloths were in perfect condition.

This was the difference between the two in experience.

Back to the unlikely trio though, after around ten seconds of panting the brunette brought her head up to say something to her partner before stopping at the sight of finding her target.

"Ah, your Roxas!" A finger was pointed in his direction and excitement overcame the girl; she'd found her target already!

Said target suddenly narrowed his eyes at hearing his name being called, ripped his hand out of the lance users and looked over them both with suspicious look in his gaze.

"How do you know my name?"

"Oh, uh... I was kinda told me bring you back by a guy named Yen Sid who said you were needed to wake up some guy named Sora so-"

"So you're both with that Riku guy!?" Roxas interrupted the girls explanation with an accusation before jumping a few metres back and getting into a fighting stance. "Why won't you people just leave me alone!?"

Cherrie frantically began raising her arms up in-front of her face to give a 'wait' gesture. "Hey hang on! L-lets just calm down and talking about it for a second okay?"

His reply was to shoot a fireball at the girl that caused her to freeze.

This was magic.

She was being attacked by magic. Images of _that_ day popped into her head almost instantly and she moved to hide behind a rock but tripped over the blasted off rock from earlier and so could only watch as...

The fireball was sliced in half by a familiar crimson lance.

"Hey spiky, lets cool down for a minute... we don't want to make a fatal error now do we?" A slight edge could be heard in the older males tone as he held the blood red weapon in-front of the fallen key bearer like a shield.

"...So you are working with them."

"Not particularly, I'm just under contract to protect her from all troubles during this battle... be it from heartless or other things."

"...I see." a thick tension could be felt between the two as they faced one another. Roxas tightened his grip on his key shaped sword while Will drew his second lance.

They stood in silence for a few minutes...

And then it was over.

In a burst of speed enhanced by the runic array etched into his shoes and pants Will drove the golden lance in his left hand forward in a clean, straight thrust. At the same time Roxas swung his own weapon in a vertical slash.

The attacks were made at the same time, there was no room to change tactics or any time to make any changes in the planned attacks. In that instant, the simultaneous kill was made...

…

…

...And the two heartless that had been attacked vanished from the world; one from being impaled in the chest and the other from having its head split in two.

"Heh, not half bad." The wielder of the golden lance spoke softly to the 'opponent' he'd just saved.

"You let it sneak up on you on purpose to see what I'd do didn't you?" Roxas spoke in the same soft voice but still slightly more edgy compared to his 'opponent'.

"...Who knows?" The lance user said this with a mysterious smile on his face. "Regardless, seeing as the rookie here is out how about you get out of here?"

"...Huh?" The nobody was completely shocked into silence. This person was working with the person- or at least one of the people- that wanted to catch him to help with Sora he'd heard so much about but he was willing to let him go?

It didn't make sense.

"...Why?"

"I've my own reasons."

"Fine... thanks." Without another word the nobody vanished from the world in a dark portal.

"...If he could do that instantly and from the beginning why'd he bother sticking around at the first sign of trouble in the first place?" Muttering that to himself the young man walked over to the downed girl who was facing the ground.

It seems seeing him and Roxas move to seemingly kill each other had sent a shock through her system and caused her to faint.

"Hey rookie, get a grip and wake up." He pocked the girls cheeks rather forcibly before pulling at them in a similar manner.

"OW! I'm up I'm up!" The brunette immediately threw herself to her feet before looking him over in a hasty manner. "Hey you okay? You guys didn't hurt each other right? H- he's not dead right? You didn't kill him right!? Where-"

CHOP!

"Your voice is annoying rook, be quiet for a moment." He removed his hand from her head and allowed her to rub the stop he'd hit.

Basically, he'd given her a karate chop to the head to stop the spew of questions.

"That hurt!"

"Your point? It got you to stop right?"

"Don't treat my head as something you can hit you ass!"

"Watch your language."

"Since when did you care!?"

This bickering continued for a while...

 _ **Willgm: Hey everyone, sorry it ended on a slightly weak note here but it was either this or a cliff hanger that was going to come a little bit after this.**_

 _ **And we all know just how much we love cliff hangers don't we?**_

 _ **At any rate, that's all to say here so tune in next time where we finish this battle and hopefully the arc.**_

 _ **Bye!**_


	5. Chapter 4- flames of battle part 2

_**Willgm: Well, here I am just to say hi. This is the second part of three of the last chapter before the epilogue that had to be taken out due to being given a limited word count by my partner.**_

 _ **Let's begin!**_

Chapter 4: Trust is born through the flames of battle part 2

Within the valley of rock and crystal outside the city of Hallow Bastion the sounds of battle could be heard. Unknown to the (still) bickering heroes Leon was still in a battle for his life. Surrounded by the enemy at all sides the scared man swung his trusty Gunblade in a ferocious assault to rid his home of the creatures known as the heartless.

In one swing of his weapon he cleaved through half a dozen armoured knights before moving forward to attack the advancing one from behind them.

Clang, shing. Just as often as the blade met their armour it met their blades that swung towards him at almost a slow motion arc. The reason for this was because his natural instincts that he'd gained through a decade of constant fighting allowed him to perceive his enemies attacks and react accordingly.

For that reason his mind gave off the illusion that they moved slowly.

Because of this...

Defeating them was as easy as breathing.

He moved, he swung, he sliced his way through the enemy opposition as much as he could but he knew he couldn't stop them all from advancing past him and into the narrow path that led to the old fountain where Yuffie waited for them.

Of course, the heartless weren't just being defeating in this particular area by him alone. On one hand there were the traps set up by Merlin that the old wizard continuously reset after their activation. These traps came in explosions, lightning strikes, bursts of snow and hail and so on.

These traps were scattered across the battlefield in set positions a ways away from each other that activated upon contact by anyone. That included Leon so in order to avoid these traps he kept himself in the same 10 metres as he occupying.

The other hand that was helping him however...

Out of the corner of Leon's eye he spied a heartless being crushed under the weight of a big sword that was swung by a man dressed in black with blond spiky hair and glowing blue eyes.

The man's name was Cloud; he was (unofficially) another member of the restoration committee who was usually wandering through other words to search for 'a certain someone'.

Right now though he was here and helping to protect the people he considered his friends.

In a similar fashion to his companion Cloud moved like a monster across the battlefield despite the immense weight of his blade. Every step brought about the destruction of a dozen heartless and each breath taken was the sign that many more were about to be slaughtered.

The pair were truly a force to reckon with when apart but when they were together they could be considered almost unstoppable.

No words were spoken between the two fighters as the minutes rolled by for none were needed. Like a hurricane the two mercilessly cut through the heartless hoard with zero mercy.

(space break)

Within the narrow path that led to the fountain behind the unstoppable pair the ninja Yuffie fought her own battle. With her shurikens in one hand and a smoke bomb in the other the teenage girl glided across the cliff faces and through the man-made path like... well, a ninja.

As there was little space to place traps in this area without causing some unwanted trouble the pathway had been left relatively undefended except for one or two here and there at the entrances and in the middle.

This left the ninja to do most of the work in this area... not that she was going to complain in this situation.

At the moment she was leaping through the air while using her throwing weapons to the fullest. At the same time her feet made contact with multiple heads of shadows as they came popping out from the ground to attack with their claws.

Briefly landing onto the ground to take a momentary breath of air she immediately went back to utilizing her skills to the max to end her opponents as efficiently as possible.

While she may not have been nearly as strong as the two fighting in the front... in conditions such as this, where she had the advantage in movement and her opponent didn't, she was the Heartlesses worst nightmare.

(space break)

Back at the fountain Cid was still fighting the best he could. Following the advice the lance user had given him earlier he held the pole arm he used with a gap in-between his hands so as to have a stronger grip; only changing the grip when she swung the spear horizontally to sweep away attacking shadows.

Still though, he wasn't as in shape as the others and so was currently gasping for breath while using his spear as a clutch.

The heartless didn't let the moment of weakness go to waste. In an instant a small group of shadow surrounded the former pilot and leaped to strike...

Only to be annihilated by Cid's spear after a faint green light had momentarily enveloped him.

The older man didn't bother turning around to check who'd saved him. He already knew that Aerith had arrived on the scene after leading the citizens of the city to the shelters.

Besides, that old coot (Merlin) was busy resetting the traps with Leon and Cloud so it could only have been that flower girl with amazing capabilities in healing magic.

The brown haired woman gave a Cid a brief nod- something he returned- when she passed and went on into Yuffie's territory.

Yes, that girl had her own priorities on this battlefield and he had his.

It was only after the younger of the two was out of sight that the elder gave a grin towards the still incoming heartless and continued his assault.

And so the battle began anew.

(space break)

And now, let's return to our two heroes.

(space break)

Will gave a small sigh as he swung his lance through yet another wave of weak shadows. For the last five minutes this had been all they'd been getting as enemies; something that was causing the lance user a small bit of grief as he'd been expected something better.

A metre or two behind him Cherrie was panting lightly as she continued to slam her blunt weapon at her enemies heads. A frown sat on the normally smiling girls face despite the experience she was getting from fighting.

It was directly towards her partner who had just minutes prior let the person she had been tasked to find and 'persuade' to come with her go after a short fight between them.

What the girl wasn't aware of was that no exchange of blows had taken place but that wasn't really something she actually needed to know right?

Anyway, because of this she was understandably upset with the older male but couldn't really do anything about it with the constant heartless attacking them... though one thing she had in common with the young man was that she too was getting tired of just fighting shadows.

Serious, they'd fought over two hundred in the last minute alone! The hell was going on!?

Neither fighter expressed this annoyance in words though but instead through their actions by allowing their irritation to fuel their strikes in eliminating the little black buggers.

They finished their current wave in a record time of ten seconds; this equalled fifty being killed every two and a half seconds.

Yes, they were that annoyed at the situation.

As a result the place they were fighting in had been levelled; bodies of rock had been blasted away by the lance users runic magic that had created explosions of fire every so often and craters had been created in the ground from the Keybearer's swings.

It should be noted this had only happened due to the girl unconsciously channelling magic through her muscles to give her added strength and not actually being her default strength.

Don't tell her that though as she's scared of using magic k?

At any rate, the battle had ended for now so the two could take a momentary breath of air to cool themselves down. Will took the time to place his lances down and stretch out his arms to get them properly in order again while Cherrie leaned against one of the still mostly intact walls and slid down to a sitting position on the ground and took a deep breath to calm her beating heart.

It was clear she was the more tired of the two.

"Here, you seem to need it more then I do." speaking up just high enough for her to hear the lancer pulled out a bottle of green liquid and a blue square from his pockets and tossed them to Cherrie's fallen form.

"The bottles a potion that'll heal those cuts you've got on your legs and the blue squares an ether that'll replenish your stamina." He explained bluntly before picking up his lances once more and took a few steps forward towards the original source of where the heartless that continued to attack them came from.

"Rest up, I'll go on ahead and deal with whatever's over there. If years of fighting have taught me anything its that a force this big wouldn't have been made without some form of stronger monster keeping them all together. We beat that thing and things should calm down." With that the lancer left the area.

...Cherrie wasn't amused.

"Hey! Your jobs supposed to be protecting me remember!? Don't just go wandering off an your own!" If he heard her he gave no indication and just kept on walking.

The amateur was left alone to attend her wounds while the professional left to finish the job.

(space break)

As the screams of that amateur finally started to die down Will allowed a sigh of relief to escape his lips as he continued his silent trek onward.

Honestly, seeing that girls fighting style had tired him out; seeing a girl with such raw magic potential- who can even subconsciously use magic to strengthen her limbs and muscles-but too utterly scared to use it was nothing short of an insult to the man that had spent the better part of three years mastering the art of runic magic from his family.

...Oh well, with the girl out of harms way for now he could unwind a little by going all out on his opponents without fear of harming others.

As if to answer his request a group of Heartless- quickly climbing into the hundreds in numbers- spawned to surround him from all directions.

It was a stage of desperation. That recognised him as the biggest threat of the bunch and so had moved in the largest pack possible to eliminate their ultimate enemy.

The tactics brought a mocking smile to cross the lancers face.

Despite there being a Keybearer a few hundred feet behind him the creatures considered him a bigger threat. The experience between truly must have been great of them to take him that seriously.

"Well, I'll happily welcome the fight." the young man spoke quietly to his emotionless opponents. "I'm in a bit of a bad mood so I'll take out my frustrations on you." saying that he took his two lances and pointed them towards the black monsters.

"Let's have some fun." With that another battle began.

(space break)

"Jerk, ass, bastard..." Cherrie spoke with puffed out cheeks as she rubbed the green liquid from the potion bottle bottle onto her injured leg. A light stinging sensation momentarily enveloped her nerves but after that a soothing feeling came out on top and she released a pleasant sigh as she watched in fascination as the scratches on her legs seemed to wash away.

When that was done she looked at the small blue cube in her hands that _ass_ had called an ether and crushed it in her palm. A faint blue light covered her whole body briefly before she felt a surge of energy build up and regenerate her stamina.

The feeling of fatigue was now gone and she could walk on her legs again without worry.

However...

"If that guy thinks he can deal with this by himself fine! He's doing his job of helping so I don't need to worry about him... probably." Despite her words- unseen to her- a small trace of concern flickered across her face. Is wasn't in her nature to hate people so to her is wouldn't be a surprise if she found out about that look.

Her thoughts of ridicule however were quickly shoved aside though as an explosion suddenly shook the area under her feet and sent her sprawling to the ground once more.

She could tell that the explosion had been magic in origin and so immediately knew the ass with the lance was fighting again.

A second explosion quickly followed the first at a greater intensity but unlike the first one didn't affect her.

"He's going all out... why am I so useless?" The amateur muttered those words of self-ridicule while a third explosion rang out across the area.

She truly was useless, she could barely fight and her fear of magic only further handicapped her ability to do so. In contrast that young man used an unusual brand of magic that acted based on symbols of power that could perform various tasks she'd never seen from magic before and possessed mastery with his chosen weapon.

The difference between them was vast and not something that could be crossed easily. It truly was the difference between a professional and an amateur...

But who cares? What does it matter if he was stronger, faster and more experienced than her?

She could stand, therefore despite what that guy thought of her she could fight!

These thoughts in her heart the amateur clenched her left fist while tightly gripping the handle of her Keyblade; the fires of determination burned brightly through her eyes as she made her way to her feet and headed to the source of the continuous explosions.

That guy was going to regret leaving her behind her behind when she ended up saving his ass from whatever mess he'd gotten into.

(space break)

In contrast to Cherrie's thoughts the aforementioned ass was holding his own quite well. In one hand the crimson lance was relieving heads from bodies while on the other the golden lance was spinning in such a fast rate that it acted as both a shield against projectiles and as a instant death trap against any foolish heartless that got too close.

With a small grin sat on his face Will happily let out his frustration with the situation he'd gotten into by decimating the forces that blocked his path. It couldn't even be classed as a workout for the young man as he was used to far more dangerous monsters that wandered across some of the worlds he'd been too.

Like the one time he'd ended up in a world full of monsters called titans... that hadn't been a fun month for the lance user.

At any rate, compared to some of the other enemies the heartless that were being sent his way weren't too much trouble.

It was perhaps because of that lack of trouble that he allowed his guard to lower ever so slightly...

That had been a mistake.

The instant he finished with the latest wave of shadows a sudden change in the wind was the only warning he received before he was thrown to the ground by a raging torrent of air that felt as hot as magma in a volcano.

Without being given time to recognise what had just happened a second gale was swept over the small walkway surrounded by two rocks that he'd found himself on and so found himself being flung around like a doll through the air and into the waiting talons of a monstrous sized eagle with a black skin instead of feathers and a pair of golden slitted eyes sat on its face.

Those aforementioned talons sent the young male crashing back into the ground faster than he could blink and creating a small crater at his landing point.

"...Damn, not bad you giant turkey." spitting a small bit of blood from his mouth Will got back to his feet and stable legs. Having his cloths reinforced with protective runic arrays had managed to negate most of the damage to his limbs; leaving only his feet feeling a glimmer of pain as it wasn't protected.

Picking up his lances in due haste he moved out of the crater that spammed five metres uphill and stood to face the monster that had invaded the battlefield. It was apparent that this creature was the 'boss' of this mob when the remaining heartless moved to where the rest of the gang was and left him to it.

It seemed his job had just become all the more easier. A smirk that reached his eyes eclipsed his face and his body bent in a way to create a jump.

Within a few moments he leapt through the clouds and threw the golden lance towards the giant Heartlesses wings in an attempt to cripple his opponent.

The eagle responded with a strong gale of heated wind that threw the lance off its course before springing into action to rip its prey apart with its talons. Will quickly manoeuvred his body- in particular his arm- to block the humongous sharp nails before allowing the force from the impact to send him falling towards the ground.

Will cast a quick aero spell to soften the landing before shooting forwards like a cannonball to where his lance had landed- not hard considering its golden gleam stuck out like a sore thumb in a valley of blue rock. He retrieved the lance from its position of being impaled into the ground before quickly jumping back to avoid the swiping talons that came his way and using his lances to shove away the giant beak that came at his head.

After landing he took a quick kneeling position to wipe some left over blood from earlier onto his golden lance and drew a series of runic patterns onto the pole arm before taking aim one more and throwing the lance once more.

This time however, when the gust of wind came to throw the lance off course the lance neither budged or strayed from its intended path; that being the creatures left wing. With a cry of actual pain attempting to shattered Will's eardrums the creature fell to the ground with a loud 'thud'.

Without hesitating he quickly moved to the fallen foe and decapitated the creature with a single swing of his crimson lance.

The battle had ended.

"That takes care of that." The lance user sheathed his weapons and walked away from his foes corpse as it faded from existence and back into the realm of darkness...

Or so it should have been.

"!" After taking a few steps away from the giant bird of prey a miasma of ill-will and darkness poured from the neck like a pool of blood until it covered everything within a metre of the bird. Thankfully Will had already left the affected radius and was rather thankful he had.

The miasma shrouded that metre radius- as well as the corpse- in total shadow within a spheric shaped cocoon for several moments until it promptly imploded to create a shockwave that caused the surrounding rock face to collapse and the lonely human to be thrown like discarded rubbish several metres into the collapsing rock.

After a minute of struggling out of the debris of rock the lancer stood only to freeze in place.

He had miscalculated- no, he'd gotten his initial feel of the eagle wrong to begin with.

Gone was the giant corpse and in its place was its 'children'. Within that metre sphere emerged dozens of eagles of similar size and scale to the one before it.

It had turned from an easy exercise to a battle between life and death in a flash.

Gripping his lances once more the young man prepared for a fight he could no longer say he could steam-roll through.

 _ **Willgm:...Don't know what to say here. I was honestly hoping to end things here but we got what we got so I can only say... see you for part three.**_


	6. Chapter 5- flames of battle part 3

Chapter 5: Trust is born through the flames of battle part 3

It was a slightly bleeding Cherrie that made her way through the debris caused by the shock wave that had just hit the area. During the initial hit the girl had been flung into a nearby rock face before having shards of said rock fall on top of her.

Those shards had caused several new cut and bruises to appear on her skin, with the still half full potion she'd been given by her 'partner' earlier being hit by a stray bit of rock after it was knocked out of her pocket making sure that she couldn't fix them up.

So now she was walking at a slower pace to the constant pain she was feeling from the cuts over her legs; though thankfully she didn't need to user her Keyblade as a crutch.

She'd also heard the cry of a bird before the aforementioned shockwave and figured that her 'partner' had been responsible somewhat for what came afterwards.

She was so going to kick his ass when this was all over for creating more problems.

That was what she thought... until she saw the position that young man was currently in.

Having finally managed to get out of the narrow caverns of rock she came across a scene straight out of a horror film.

Clouding up the sky like a dark cloud the monstrously sized eagles moved in formation to tear their chosen prey to pieces one limb at a time. Said prey was desperately moving at a rapid pace that couldn't be good for their legs in an attempt to avoid them.

Even from her position a few dozen metres metres away from the action she could see several faint trails of blood coming from his body and the effect it was having on his movement.

She'd only been watching the action for around half a minute by now but during that time the lancer had clearly moved in a constant state of decline in his speed; causing him to make more mistakes in dodging and getting hit more and more often.

She had to help him.

She had to make sure he didn't die due to being involved in this mess.

She was the one who'd forced him to participate; so it was her job to make sure he came out of it.

With that in mind she jumped into that mess of a battle with no hesitation despite not having any plan of action.

(space break)

Will was beginning to feel the fatigue building up in his legs and the desire to just sit down was becoming all the more overwhelming.

He couldn't make good on that feeling though due to a case of pests that came in the shape of giant eagles.

The moment the thirty eagles all emerged from their 'cocoon' they'd moved in unison to quickly dismember him. Bringing out their large talons together in a single synchronised strike.

He'd managed to avoid them thankfully by moving in a burst of speed caused by the runes engraved on his feet. Any chance of a counter-attack though was rendered null and void when they split into groups of five that acted almost as squads in an army to take him down.

Having more than one attacking at the same time caused him to have to dodge at every turn and the constant use of the speed burst began accumulating into a dull pain that quickly became known as the fight continued.

He had to do something, he needed to find a gap in their attack pattern if he was to turn things around.

The only problem was that doing so was impossible with the current status duo.

With no time to do anything but dodge and having enemies at all sides he was stuck into a battle that would only lead to his eventual death...

That was until a break in the chain occurred when one of the eagles in the upcoming squad was smashed over the head with a familiar orange spiked bat with a key chain under the handle. This caused the eagle to collide into the one next to it and cause a domino effect to occur in that they fell over one another and collapsed to the ground.

A soft smile came over the young man's face for the briefest of moments before it vanished. "You're late rookie, I was beginning to wonder if you'd ran off with hurt feelings."

"If you have time to joke around then you have time to actually fight." Was the curt response she gave that sounded unlike her.

It just caused another smile to come over Will's face. "Oh good, you're picking up my attitude already. God I'm such a great role model."

"I said stop the jokes Curell." Cherrie gave the young man a heated glare. "I'm only here because its my fault you're here to begin with. With that being the case-"

She was cut off my Will shoving her to the side to block the incoming talon from one of the eagles.

"Never talk on the field of battle; that's practically rule number one. If you ever feel the desire to do so always keep one eye on the enemy to act accordingly when they strike." He threw the talon away and quickly threw his crimson spear towards the eagles chest.

The spear ran it right through and it vanished into darkness for good.

Cherrie responded by giving a half-heated glare to her 'partner' while getting to her feet. She was going to make sure and take that lesson to heart...

If only to make fun of him later for it at an undetermined time frame.

"Can you actually still fight with those injuries rookie?"

"Could ask you the same thing."

He heartily laughed in response while jumping away to avoid another swipe from an eagle. He quickly jumped back in quick succession to land on the eagles back and deliver a killing blow.

One more down.

"That answer your question?"

She responded with a stuck out tongue.

Real mature there Cherrie.

(space break)

"...Tch, this is a bust." A ways away from the pair of fighters a man whose face was concealed by a red hood coming from the red coat he wore watched on from a rock face with- while unseen due to his hood- a slight scowl on his face.

In his hands a wine glass with a inside transparent liquid was crushed and discarded almost in disgust.

"Hey, you make it sound like you were expecting things to work out in this set up." A somewhat snide voice made itself known beside him; where a man with a similar body structure to the first one only dressed in a blue coat sat.

The voice sounded slightly more youthful than the one coming form the red coated man as well.

"It _was_ supposed to work; the spell that had forced those brainless creatures to act in a military formation was broken the moment that new keybrat broke the line."

"Ah, so that was how you did it. I did wonder how you got those things to act like a functional group. I take it the earlier attack on him was due to a similar spell as well?"

"What do you think aqua?"

The man in the blue coat shrugged. "Beats me Fiamma; you never tell any of us anything. Take this attack you orchestrated for example," He gestured to the entirety of the battlefield spread out around them. "You never mentioned you were gonna do this to Vento when he set out to deal with the remnant of that ghost family- not that it matters cause he's dead but you get what I mean."

"...And if I did tell you things what would any of you have done about them? You in particular tend to leave things that have nothing to do with you alone so saying anything would have been useless- and before you say anything _she_ isn't much better."

The man in blue had no retort for that and simply went silent to process what he'd just been told.

What his 'partner'- a term he used rather sparingly- had said about him wasn't incorrect or anything. Learning about his plans wouldn't have changed anything in regards to his own at all unless they were in direct contradiction to each other but the event of that was highly unlikely.

"...You're right, I'll just shut up now." Was his eventual response.

"Good to see you're learning." Was the man in reds response.

With that the two silently vanished like a breeze in the wind. No trace of them having existed remained on their vantage point and none aware of their existence.

(space break)

They had ceased speaking with one another for the most part. For now their main priority was too eliminate the giant eagles.

Something seemed to have been changed in their opponents- perhaps due to Cherries interference- as they broke off the squads they'd made and began moving as individuals instead.

This made them easier targets for the pair that moved as one unit in destroying them one by one.

The basic strategy was simple; Will would provoke one of them by hurling one of his lances towards one- whether it hit or not never truly mattered- which would in turn cause the predictable response of the eagle charging forward with its talons out seeing to rip its target apart.

It was during this rage induced charge that Cherrie would jump from a vantage point on the rocks and smash the things head in with a blow or two depending on where the initial hit... well, hit.

Had they tried this before their strategy would have been seen through by their enemy but now with them acting like the crazed monsters they were acting on only instincts it was going a lot better.

Within minutes the duo had eliminated thirteen of the creatures which- when you add in the ones Will killed earlier- brought the enemy down to exactly half numbers.

Normally that would be cause for celebration...

However, reality wasn't nearly that pleasant.

"!" The lancer flinched as the pain that was still built up in his legs sent a shockwave up his nerves as he once again recovered from jumping to deliver his initial strike with his lance- with said lance falling to a spot a couple of metres away.

His earlier injuries that still not been treated due to a lack of time in being able to do so. He had in his pockets another couple of potions that could treat them but the possibility of one of the birds of prey attacking him in that moment of defencelessness was too great a risk to ignore.

He would just have to bare with it until the battle ended.

He'd-

"Hey, professional fighter; why don't you heal your legs already?"

After dealing with another of the eagles with their strategy Cherrie brought up the question that had been plaguing her mind since they'd started. Not once had her 'partner' stopped to fix his legs and constantly seeing the bleeding mess they were with the multiple slashes that covered them was beginning to make her slightly sick.

Despite hearing the worry in her voice he simply replied with an unconcerned tone. "We're kind of dealing with a problem of fourteen monstrous birds attacking us rookie; I don't see the time to apply treatment in the gaps we're getting here to rest. Do you?"

Instead of replying she looked at him almost insulted. "Did you forget you have a partner here you damn lone wolf!?"

...That stopped him in his tracks somewhat. He _had_ forgotten he had a partner here with him.

"...You think you can cover me until I get this treated... Cherrie?"

The smile she gave him was like he'd told her Christmas had come early this year. "No problem, just leave it to me!" Her posture oozed confidence and a smirk that matched sat on her face.

She wouldn't let him down; not when he'd placed his trust in her!

(space break)

...They were done, it'd taken the pair of them a long time to do it but they'd finally finished off the last of their enemies.

After he'd treated his wounds Will had gone out all force against the eagles as a sort of payback and decimated three of them in quick succession with a single throw.

Not looking to be outdone by her partner Cherrie also re-doubled her efforts in taking out the eagles; using the positioning of the rocks to her advantage she leapt higher and higher until she was above her chosen prey and quickly dispatched them with a single blow.

Once again her magic played a small part in this as it acted upon her unconscious will to defeat the birds of prey.

Again, don't tell her that, k?

At any rate, the long battle had finally ended when the last of the eagles was vanquished from a combined attack form the two fighters who were now making their way to where the restoration committee was.

Will carried his usual look of indifference while Cherrie had a spring in her step as she happily sang quietly to herself over their victory.

She was so happy that she'd completely forgot that the person walking beside her had let her original objective flee earlier.

It didn't take them long to find the rest of the gang who were all together by the destroyed fountain where they'd left Cid. As expected everyone was alright with little visible injuries covering them- though that may have been because Aerith had already healed them.

"Ah, there you two are; we were beginning to worry." Merlin laughed slightly to himself.

"Don't count us out that quickly old man; though I'll admit there was a close call at one point when one giant heartless turned into thirty."

"That so? Well it was a good thing Miss Brave there was nearby then wasn't it?"

"...Yeah, it was." His answer actually surprised the old wizard somewhat before he quickly went into another round of laughter.

"It seems we've changed a little haven't we my boy?"

A smile came to the lancers lips. "In your dreams." With that he walked past everyone and up into the city...

"Oh yeah, Cherrie."

"?"

"...In the end, you were right." With that he left their sight.

Cherrie looked on in confusion for a few moments before the realisation hit her and a wide smile grew on her lips.

" _Bet I'll be saving your neck more!"_ She'd said that to him just before they entered the fight...

She remembered... and she giggled to herself.

 _ **Willgm: Finally, I'm done with this arcs climax. Damn it, making it big enough to split into three parts was annoying... which is funny when you consider I've written longer stuff than this... 9 something k climax in my To aru story which has two 14k word chapters but that beside the point.**_

 _ **Anyway, next up is just going to be a little epilogue type chapter that'll be fairly short so look forward to that.**_

 _ **Then it'll be Servine's turn to write her first arc... so I'll probably be seeing you around three- four chaps and 4k words later.**_

 _ **In any case, see ya next time.**_


	7. Epilogue 1- The birth of a partnership

_**Willgm: Alright, lets get this little epilogue done with so we can move onto the next arc.**_

Epilogue 1: The birth of a partnership

All and all it hadn't taken long for everything to go back to normal in Hollow bastion. The populace were brought out of the shelters and everyone got back to their day to day lives within the hour.

Whether this can be attributed too them being used to doing this or just plain human adaptability was up for debate though.

Not that it mattered to Cherrie. The young Keybearer was happily moving things such as basic necessities onto her Gummi ship that had been lacking.

Such as shampoo and other bathroom products for instance.

She wasn't doing this alone of course. Standing right beside her was the person she'd honestly expected the least to help with something like this.

Yes, she'd hardly expected Will to stick around at all and yet here he was helping her load stuff onto her ship.

He hadn't said a word; he'd just arrived in the middle of unloading and started to work as if it were only natural for him to do so.

She wasn't going to complain though as two pairs of hands were better than one and so the two managed to get everything set up in half the time she expected it to take.

If was only when they were truly finished that Cherrie chose to speak up.

"Uh, not that I don't appreciate the help Will but why did you help- better yet why are you even here?"

The look he gave her seemed to be calling her an idiot for asking. "I do believe you asked me to help if I recall our original meeting."

"...Huh?"

"Since I've got nothing better to do and seeing you fight was a poison to my eyes"-hey!- "I figured I'd make sure you don't get yourself killed until you're properly trained up to take things on yourself."

She looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. This... wasn't the same person she'd met originally.

"...What happened to that 'humans are naturally selfish' crap?"

"It took a back seat when I was offered a deal for one favour of whatever I wanted from a certain girl in exchange for taking part in a certain battle earlier today."

It took a few moments for Cherrie to remember exactly what he meant and when she did a faint blush rose to her cheeks. She had made such a deal hadn't she?

"W-wait, you took that seriously?"

"You said it completely seriously so yes; I'll be coming with you so I can cash in on that favour when the mood of it strikes me. If that means having to keep your sorry ass alive by travelling with you then I'll do it."

...She understood what he meant. She may have been a bit of an airhead at times- she'll happily admit that she's not the brightest of people- but even she could tell he was using the favour as an excuse.

He'd changed on that battlefield, even if only ever so slightly. He seemed to recognise that and was willing to see where it would lead him...

And to do that he needed to be around her.

"Something wrong?" At seeing the girl blush so red it looked like her face had become a tomato he moved in slightly which caused her to back away with a short squeak.

"I-I'm fine! I'm fine; nothing for you to worry about."

He didn't seem like he wanted to accept that but nodded in consent. "Alright... then where am I sleeping?"

"Just choose a room that doesn't have my name on it."

He nodded and headed off into the corridor.

Cherrie... was conflicted. On one hand she was happy she wasn't going in this alone while on the other hand... well he'd let Roxas go before for some unknown reason so would be do it again?

She'd yet to ask why he'd done it so perhaps this was a good opportunity.

At any rate, having two people on the 'hunt' was better than one so she'll just have to welcome it for now.

(space break)

They'd said goodbye to everyone and had everything set up around the ship. With nothing else keeping them there the pair launched off the landing platform and headed into the vast reaches of space.

"So, where to?"

Next to her Will asked the million money question.

"...That's a good question actually."

The sound a something hitting the floor was heard and when she turned to look away from the controls Will had in fact fell off his chair and hit his head.

"Are you seriously telling me you have no leads!?"

"Well if _someone_ hadn't let him go we wouldn't have to look for him in the first place!"

"Despite that are you seriously telling me that you have no plan other than to go to a random world and hope he's there!?"

There were both getting riled up at one another which caused Cherrie to accidentally pressed the co-ordinates of a random world when she sent her arms flailing around in a huff.

"H-hey! Delay that before-"

He was too late, the ship blasted off at the speed of light and sent him flying out of the cockpit and down the hall.

"Dammit Cherrie!" could be heard as he continued to fly.

Yep, this was definitely a great start to their partnership.

 _ **Willgm: Okay, my part for now is finally done!**_

 _ **Damn, 17k words here and that's just the beginning arc. Well then, just as a heads up Servine will be writing the next chap so when you notice the difference in writing styles there's why.**_

 _ **Servine: Finally, that took forever!**_

 _ **Willgm: Yeah yeah, sorry for the long wait on my part- it may not look like a long time to you guys depending on the release schedule but for us the writing of this was well over a month.**_

 _ **Servine: Try two.**_

 _ **Willgm: Again sorry... well its your turn now so I'll be expecting something at least half the length of this.**_

 _ **Servine: H-huh!? You know I can't write something half this long!**_

 _ **Willgm: Not. My. Problem. Well hope you had fun with this arc and we'll see you next time.**_

 _ **Servine: Hey, don't-**_

 _ **BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!**_


	8. Chapter 6- A New World

_**Servine; Finally! I get my chance to do my part of this story, thank you.**_

 _ **Willgm; Just get on with it leafy.**_

 _ **Servine; STOP CALLING ME THAT!**_

 _ **Willgm; Sorry.**_

 _ **Servine; That's ok. Let's get on with this! I'm soooo excited.**_

Chapter 6 A New World

The older man sat on his chair and loaded up his laptop. He checked the news whist he combed his reddish moustache. It was quiet in the office for once. Saturday morning and no one was high jacking the new Ps6 that just came out or the new Super Smash Brothers that came out for the Nintendo 4DS.

The man sighed as his fingers scrolled down the mouse pad and something caught his eye...

A picture...

A horrifying picture that you would expect to find in a horror film. The report said that it was the body of a middle aged male... They thought. The picture showed that the 'man' who didn't even resemble a human at all. He'd been decapitated for starters, his right leg was missing, his chest had been carved in. The carving formed the Roman numerals XIII, 13. The man puzzled over why someone would carve that into a human's chest.

Maybe it was a sign. But what kind of a sign. The man couldn't figure it out. Suddenly, he sensed the dark magic from one of his co workers. The eighteen year old stood at the doorway to the older man's office. The boy had completely white hair, grey eyes that had the tint of yellow in them, he wore a white long cloak and blue trousers. He stood there with a glass of orange juice in his left hand and the T.V remote in the other.

The older man smiled at the albino as the boy took a sip from the glass.

"What's new then?" the albino asked.

The older man had semi-long hair that was a gingery brown and he always kept it in a ponytail. His moustache was the same colour and he wore a brown cloaked jacked, much like the albino man that stood before him. The older man's trousers were blue and he slammed his gloved hands on his desk.

"Another man died last night." he said.

"What? Again? But we have upped the patrolling hours."

"I know, I don't think everyone is pulling their weight here."

"You don't suspect, Graham do you?"

The older man nodded at the albino's remark. He took his hands off the desk and he sat back in his chair, "Where is Graham now?"

"I believe he's down town."

"Bring him, or call him. I don't care, I just want to know why this happened on his watch."

"Ok Julius."

(Space Break)

 _Six weeks later..._

Both Will and Cherrie arrive on the new world at almost light speed. The lancer was catapulted back to the end of the Gummi Ship in the sheer force of how fast he was moving. He fell flat on his face when Cherrie suddenly found the button for the breaks and the ship stopped just before it hit a building. Will was not impressed. He just wanted to strangle the rookie in his anger, but she was only a rookie and this act alone made it look like that Cherrie hadn't read the instructions for what button did what on her own ship.

"DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO DRIVE THIS!? Do you have a manual for all the buttons?"

"Well, I did, but when I started making this ship look nice and clean... It might have got lost in one of the rooms..."

"What!?"

"Don't worry, I'll remember where I put it."

"I'll be dust by that point."

"What was that?"

"It doesn't matter. So what world are we on anyway?"

Cherrie looked at the monitor, "Earth and our location is Tokyo, Japan."

"Right activate stealth then."

"Now which button was that again..." she mumbled, "Ah this one."

Will prayed that she hit the correct button, she did and stealth mode was active. Cherrie jumped out from the Gummi Ship to see what was on this new world, but Will sighed when she got her foot caught on the step and she fell to the ground. It was kind of funny, if Will had a sense of humour.

The strange new city was huge and busy. It have giant skyscrapers all over the place. Lots of people roamed the streets as cars and buses flew passed the two of them.

But all of a sudden, the people started to rush away from the city centre and Cherrie ran straight towards whatever they were all running from.

It was a Heartless. A massive octopus looking Heartless. Cherrie took a deep breath and she summoned her Keyblade. She clumsily attempted to slash at the Heartless' tentacles, but they moved out of her range too quickly for her. Will threw one of his lances at the Heartless, bull's eye. He hit it right in the eye. However, this made the creature breathe out some toxic gas from its mouth. The two of them held their breaths as the toxic cloud floated passed them.

Suddenly, a black blur came free-falling off one of the skyscrapers. He pulled out a sword then sliced the Heartless into two pieces. He landed gracefully on the floor as the Heartless vanished into the darkness. The man had black hair, a beautiful face and a black suit. His sword was long and it had a purple aura that shone along its blade. Will retreated his lance as the man smiled and Cherrie gorped at his beauty.

"So, what's your name?" Cherrie asked.

"Huh, not interested." the man said, "I have got things to do."

"What kind of 'things'?" Will asked grabbing the man by his collar.

"Business." he shrugged Will off.

"You feel that?" Will asked the girl, "Oh what you don't."

"Asshole."

"Stupid." he replied.

"Asshole."

"Stupid."

"Asshole!" she screamed, "Now what are you sensing?"

"Dark power from him. He's a creature of the night. I'm guessing a Vampire."

"You are half right, I am a Dhampir."

"Cool hybrid." Cherrie said.

 _'Boo! HAUNTED HOUSE!'_ a little floating orb said.

"It's a ghost!" Cherrie said in fear.

 _'You can see me?'_

"Yes." Cherrie said, "Why wouldn't I?"

 _'I think they can help.'_

"Oh, you need help? With what?" Will said.

The man sighed again, "With a co worker of mine, his name is Graham. He is corrupt."

"Oh you mean that he has given into the darkness in his heart." Cherrie cheerfully said.

"What?" the man said.

"Don't ask, it's confusing." Will said, "What do we call you?"

"Alucard, but people in this world call me Genya."

"Ok then Alucard, wait, you said 'world.' You know that we're not from this world?" Cherrie said.

"My mother had a theory that there were more worlds out there."

"She must have been one smart lady." Will said.

"So what are you two doing here?"

"We're looking for a little boy in black clothing. He belongs to a group known as the Organisation XIII." the girl said.

"XIII?" the man stopped to think for a second and then he sighed, "I have seen someone like that."

"Really when?" Cherrie asked.

"My boss found a news article 6 weeks ago of a man who had the number 13 in Roman numerals. After that, the castle over there arose again, then Graham stabbed another employee. Her name was Yoko."

"Is she ok?" Cherrie asked.

"She is fine, I took care of her."

"Ok, I'm Cherrie by the way and this is my partner Will."

"I'm only here because she forced me."

"What a nice relationship. I guess I should take you to Julius. Trevor. Tell Julius that I have found some more help."

 _'Ok.'_ the ghost said as he flew away.

"I will take you to Castlevania."


	9. Chapter 7- A disappointment for Will

_**Servine; It's still me guys. :D**_

Chapter 7- A disappointment for Will

The black haired man that they had just met was a very strange one. He was very shady and didn't want to tell his new friends the whole truth about the situation. It was like he was cutting out key details, even though his information was beginning to match up. He dodged passed the mass amount of people that rush passed the three of them. Will almost barged passed them, whist Cherie polity walked on by. Suddenly, a man in a black cloak appeared. He stood at the top of a skyscraper with some attitude and lots of lances. Will was the first one of them to spot the man and he reacted as such, he began to run along the side of the building. Genya sighed at the male and he jumped up to where Will was on the building and brought him down using his stylish black shoes. The lancer fell to the ground in a hep.

"What the hell!?"

"Anyone could have saw that you twit. How would you explain a stunt like that to people?"

"ermm...Magic." Cherrie said, "But that guy is a member of the Organisation XIII."

"So, he is not our priority. Do they kill humans?"

"No." Cherrie said.

"Then let us continue."

"But that could be Rox-Wait no it's not." she corrected herself.

Genya sighed once again, he wasn't happy. If these two idiots were to help Soma and Julius defeat Graham, then God help them.

The three of them came to a shrine. It was red and the paint was beginning to fade and peel away, but the place was old and it could use some love. With the paint faded, Will could see that the shrine was made from oak. The shrine also had some faded white paint on the top. Really, it needed a new splash of paint. Genya was the first of them to walk through the shrine and he just vanished. Cherrie rubbed her eyes in amazement and wondered if what she was seeing was real. It was, Will did the same thing and he dragged the gorping girl in with him.

They were now inside of Castlevania. The inside walls of the castle were made from stone, much like the rest of the place and it showed. Cherrie began to shiver from the cold of the castle, stone does not work for keeping heat in.

"You will get used to it." Genya said, "This is only the Castle Corridor, come on."

When Cherrie heard the words castle and corridor, she immediately imagined what she thought the place would look like. She imagined beautiful majestic hallways with crimson red curtains, butlers, massive expensive pine brown doors, jaw dropping glass windows and cats, lots of them.

When she walked in this is what she actually saw, skeletons and lots of them. There were no amazing curtains, no butlers, or stained glass windows, pine doors yes, but only at the end of the corridor and no cats. Not one. Meow.

"This place is a dump. I expected-"

"This is not a princess castle Cherrie, this castle is inhabited with all sorts of creatures of the night, so be on your guard."

"You mean, spiders?" she said.

"Spiders; snakes, bugs, crows, dogs, Demons, Werewolves and Vampires."

"This place is amazing, I like it." Will was finally happy about something.

 _ **'And ghosts.'**_

"Yes, hello Simon." Genya said

The ghost that was known as Simon Belmont was the most well known of the Belmont family, with Richter Belmont being second. Most people know Simon because of his amazing fight with Dracula, not once, but twice. He was stabbed with a cursed knife in the first fight. This curse began to decay his body whist he was still alive. The ginger male struggled to live. But he was a tainted soul. Simon's mother, Elizabeth, was bitten by a vampire roughly 36 weeks into her pregnancy. The venom was in her system long enough for it to stay in the umbilical cord for at least 4 weeks. She had the venom taken out by a vampire, who is rumoured to be dead. However, the venom changed Simon's body, making him ever so Vampiric. He had increased strength and speed than any human, he could snap a human's neck like it was a twig. He was also given powerful Pyrokinetic abilities.

His descendent Richter inherited the power of his ancestor Trevor's Item Crash. Which is he can pick up any weapon and enchant it and draw mass amounts of power from it. For example, if he held a bottle of Holy Water, enchanted it, he could make it rain Holy Water, which he used to used almost all the time. Any monster that was weak to holy weapons, this Belmont would spam that attack almost every time, guaranteed. By doing this he unlock the inner magic in his blood, oh and Trevor got married with a witch. He found this inner witch magic and gained the power of Hydrokinesis. If he used Hydro Strom, which made the Holy water rain, he could physically move the rain with his mind or any water substance to where ever he fancied. So ability spamming is no bad thing.

But Simon was the bad mouthed douchebag of the family. Leon was a innocent sweetheart. Trevor was just a dick, only if a person didn't know him. He would eventually warm up to people that he didn't know. Christopher was a lot like Leon, a pain in the ass who cared about one person. His son. Juste was cool, but he glowed for some reason. Richter was a little cocky, but he was a kind person that cared about his friends and family. However, Simon. He's Simon. He's an arrogant douchebag that can't control his natural Vampiric urges. Vampires kill by nature. Simon kills by nature. In his lifetime he murdered fourteen normal everyday people, just because they pissed him off. Seven of those where just idiots who were possibly drunk who thought they could take him on. Well, that didn't turn out too well for them. Most of the people that Simon killed were servants to Dracula. So they were on his side and those were the main people that were behind the Count's resurrection every time when they fancied being a total prick to mankind.

Anyway enough about Simon...

The ghost looked towards Genya with a smile on his dead face, he knew that something was up. The ghost swirled around the lancer and he couldn't help but smack the ghost with his left spear. The ghost was catapulted into the wall of the Castle's Corridor. The blue orb slowly fell down the wall like in some kind of cartoon series. He raced straight back up to the lancers face.

 _ **'What was that for?'**_

"You annoyed me."

The ghost's rage began to boil as the lancer shook his head to one side in an arrogant manner. The black haired man ignored the two of them and continued on.

However, Simon didn't fancy sticking around with someone that was almost as much of a douche as he was, so the ghost vanished away from the group.

"So why are the ghost's here? And how come we haven't seen any monsters yet?" Cherrie asked Genya.

"That is because Julius killed them all in this area. The ghost's...The reason why they are still on this plane dates back to 1102, roughly. Leon's children were born, but his wife was left alone to raise them. He was worried about his old friend Mathias, who later changed his name to Dracula in the early 1400s, coming back to plague humanity again and plunging the world into darkness of a curse. So on the Belmont's death bed his final wish was to stay on this plane so he could train his two sons in the art of Vampire Hunting and Death agreed." Genya explained.

"Wait, so the physical manifestation of Death, allowed one man to stay on this plane so he could train his children." Will pointed out.

"Yes, Death was a lot nicer back then and he liked Leon. The blond was the first warrior to stand against the angel and defeat him. Death respected this and granted him this wish. Then he asked for all the other Belmonts to stay so he did not get lonely, so Death decided to curse the whole family so they couldn't leave this world without Dracula being truly defeated. A punishment for them defeating his master _every_ time he returns."

"I guess you get sick of it." Cherrie said, "That's a strange looking Heartless."

The creature that stood before them was as big as the whole room. It carried a giant bone for a weapon and was basically a skeleton. Genya couldn't understand why the girl would mistake a Creaking Skull for one of these Heartless thingy majogers. It was clearly a Creaking Skull. However, Soma defeated this one, it should be dead and lying in a bag full of its bones. Can they put themselves back together? Genya never recalled on them doing something like that.

Whist Genya was busy thinking about how this thing came back to life, the massive bone guardian swung its giant bone at all of them. Because the black haired man wasn't paying attention, he was smacked by the massive bone and his body smashed into the wall.

Will charged a power in his right spear. The spear shined a crimson colour, indicating that it was fully charged. He through the spear at the monster's head. This cracked the creature's skull and it lay on the floor, dead.

"Come on, give me a bigger challenge." he said to himself as he picked up the spear.

"What on Earth was that?" Genya asked.

"My Uruz ruin, increases strength." Will said.

"How powerful was that thing?" Cherrie asked.

"Not very, if Soma could- Wait, even Mina could beat that thing."

"Who's Mina?" Cherrie asked.

"A girl that Soma likes, she is training in white magic." Genya said.

"Oh, that sounds cool." Cherrie replied, "So what's beyond the skelly man?"

"If we go upwards, we reach the Inner Quarters." Genya replied.

"Oh alright then." she said cheerfully.

"How high can you two jump?"

"Pretty high, I think." she said.

"High enough." said Will, his old mood had returned.

"Good."

 _ **Servine; OMG this chapter is 1756 words long... GO ME! Anyway this is the end of this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it, see you.**_


	10. Chapter 8- The Inner Quarters

_**Servine; HEELLLLOOOOO!**_

 _ **Willgm; Can you hurry this up? Now you're making me wait.**_

 _ **Servine; Huh, well good, you made me wait.**_

 _ **Willgm; Just get on with it.**_

 _ **Servine; Fine. Let's continue people.**_

Chapter 8- The Inner Quarters and its monsters

The three of them reached this part with a very high set of jumps. At the top of all the jumps was a large gap between the Inner Quarters and the wall. Cherrie was beginning to get annoyed with this jump. She jumped _all_ the way up here just to fall down. Even Will was just short of the jump. His fingertips only just barely touched the ledge to the next area, but sadly, he couldn't grab onto the ledge and he too, fell to the lower platforms. Genya found it a breeze because he preformed some kind of a long jump, well that's what it looked like. However, Cherrie kept saying that she swore she could see a little creature helping him across. Genya did not share his method of how he got across to the other two, ass.

"You NEVER said anything about a jump like this!" Will said.

"You want some help?" he taunted.

"ASSHOLE!" Will said.

Genya sighed, "Do you want my help or not?"

"Fine." Cherrie said.

"Richter!"

The brunette ghost appeared to the call of the black haired man. The Belmont seemed happy to see Genya for some reason, even if it was going to potentially be for a short time.

 _'What's up?'_

"Lend us your High Jump please."

 _'Ok.'_

Richter floated down to where Cherrie was first and without her permission, he sunk himself into her body. Then he took control of the girl's arms and legs to preform the High Jump. The girl shot into the air without any effort and the ghost exited her body when she was safely next to Genya.

 _'Do you want my assistance?'_

"NO!" Will said.

The man finally managed to pull of the jump necessary to get across. He still only just barely made it, but this time he was able to grip his fingers on the ledge. He pulled himself up to a laughing ghost.

"What's so funny? Are all these ghosts assholes?"

 _'No, just that...Trevor whispered a funny joke to me and then flew away.'_

"Right." Will said.

They made it to the Inner Quarters. The place was like a church. It had giant stain glass windows with more jumps. Will was glad that these jumps were easy. The only problem was that there were monsters, they were not that much of a problem for the group...Well for Cherrie maybe. The girl was useless. Because these monsters were not Heartless she started becoming scared of the monsters that came up to her. The monsters ranged from a Persephone, who just looked like a Demonic maid with some serious kung-fu skills. Durgas, who were an almost naked woman with knives and swords coming from their backs. Nemesises or Nemesi, either one is strange to say, which were just an invisible angel holding a sword. Lightning Dolls, they are like the Frankenstein monster, but in doll form. Imps. They were annoying. They are little Devil that carry spears around with them, that can stop a person in their tracks for some reason. Arc Demons, were probably the thing that Cherrie should be the most afraid of. They are mean looking nasty massive Devils that have come from the Underworld to aid Dracula. Why? Is a good question. Maybe Dracula has pizza for them. ?.

Will decided to enter into a room. It was like all the others. Except that when he entered he was immediately catapulted out of the room. It was like he never entered the room.

"WHAT THE HELL?" he screamed.

"Oh that is Chronomage. He is a Guardian of Time. At the moment he is in his rabbit form and he is not going to let you in there." Genya said.

"Fine then. He's probably guarding something." Will said.

They continued on and then they ran into a witch. Flying around on broomstick firing fireballs and very powerful in black magic, sadly they didn't see many of those. Genya said that the witches are just people who have been corrupted by their black magic, well the ones that live in here are corrupt. His friend Yoko, who was currently setting in a hospital bed, was a witch and she was completely fine to be around. No random fireball that would attack the group.

The Valkyries were also a pain in the ass to kill. They were just warrior angels or Demons with angelic wings with spears. They swooped down on the group at random intervals, they were all dead now. The Curlies just looked like the Durgas just a little darker skin, four arms and ginger hair. As they got closer to the end of the area, the group encountered a Lilith. A Succubus look a like that would steal someone's soul as they happily slept in the night. The last two new enemies that they faced was some Killer Dolls and Student Witches. The Killer Dolls were figurines that were possessed by a murderous spirit. The Student Witches were just apprentice witches and could only summon cats to battle and scratch the group's faces up a little.

Eventually, they came to a larger room than before, much like when they fought the Creaking Skull. Will expected a battle from another monster that was more powerful that the weaklings that they had been hacking their way through. There was nothing and Will was disappointed.

"Where's the massive monster?" Will said.

"You mean the Head Huntress. Oh she is dead. Soma took her soul." Genya said in a casual tone.

"Oh, well that's a shame." Cherrie said.

 _'It was a good fight though.'_

"Yes. We best keep moving." Genya said.

"Were are we going now?" Cherrie asked.

"The Top Floor, and then to Graham. I am just wondering were Soma is."

 _'Phone him.'_

"No reception."

 _'Damn.'_

"Let us just get going."

The group came to the area known as the Top Floor. The place looked very intimidating to the young girl. This castle was just too much for her. All the monsters that she saw, she felt like she couldn't kill them because they were not Heartless. She thought they were innocent creatures that had gone bad or had gone corrupt. The girl refused to kill anything here. Lovely. So Genya and Will had to do all the fighting for her.

The area was made up of a lot of chapel looking areas. With some hard jumps later on when they got closer to the throne room, where Dracula would drink his wine or blood when he was alive. The Vampire King would do that frequently when he was bored. There were also some areas that were covered in fire or had fire pits for no reason. This area was huge. But for the most part they all looked the same, so it was hard for them to tell where they were going.

The enemies that they were facing were not that tough by Will's standards. The Skeleton Knights and the Dead Crusaders were pretty much the same monster. A part from one had blue amour, whilst the other had red. The Gargoyles would fly by the group and attempt to hit them. This was the first time that Cherrie attacked something.

The beast came flying towards her at high speeds. It's claws were sharp and ready for penetrating the young girl's throat, but she shocked the boys. The girl smacked the beast with that spiked bat of a Keyblade, catapulting it into a wall. The sheer force of the impact is what killed the creature or just knocked it out. Either way, Will stabbed it to make sure it was gone.

"Well done." Genya said, "The monsters here are like those Heartless creatures. They can really hurt people if they are not stopped."

"I understand now." she said.

As they continued on, they encountered a Red Minotaur. This red bull with an axe was huge. The creature grew angry as the group approached the thing and Cherrie thought she could see its skin turn a darker red as its anger increased. The bull swung its massive axe at the group, but Will saw it as no real threat and neither did Genya. The two of them ganged up on the creature and sliced its Demonic body in two with ease.

The Baels that they encountered were just as easy to destroy as they looked. They were lion heads encased in a fire wheel.

However, when the group came across a young Japanese priestess, Cherrie immediately raced over to help the woman. Genya tried to stop the girl, but she was convinced that the woman on the floor needed help. So she ignored both of the men and she approached the lady.

"Are you hurt?" she said to the woman.

"My ankle, I think I have sprained it."

"Oh, I can't heal, sadly. Can any of you heal?"

Both of the men shook their heads.

"She is a Succubus anyway." Genya said.

"What? No I'm not." the ginger girl said.

"I think you are." the black haired man said.

The girl allowed her illusion to fade and her bat wings to show. Her claws were long and so were her fangs. Neither of the men took to the monster's nudity though.

"Why are you naked? But some clothes on." Cherrie said.

"It's to look attractive." the Succubus replied.

"Well, it makes you look desperate." she said as the monster was impaled with a lance.


	11. Chapter 9- The Top Floor

_**Servine; I left it on a bit of a cliffhanger for a reason people for**_ _'suspense.'_ _ **Something that I don't do too well because I update too often. Whatever let's get this chapter started.**_

Chapter 9- The Top Floor and the golden beast

Will did not throw the lance.

Then who did?

Both of the lances that Will had were still firmly in his grasp. He would have killed the beast anyway, but that's besides the point. The Succubus was dead. She lay on the ground as a man jumped down from the floor above and landed with the wind under his feet. The three of them immediately got ready for a fight as the man placed his hand up to tell them to stop. He pulled his lance out from the body of the monster and he was about to leave.

But before he did, Cherrie raced up to him and attacked him from behind. The newbie attacked a man out of nowhere and for no reason. She stood there as the man turned around and gave her a smack with his lance, making her smash into the wall.

"Alright, who the hell are you?" Genya said.

"My name is Xaldin, and this girl is becoming a pain in our necks."

"I guess that you are a member of this Organisation XIII then?"

"How did you-? Hump... I guess I'm just going to have to take you out then."

"Ah, but I am one of this world. An inhabitant, if you kill me, then you might mess up the balance of this world. I was not meant to die by your hand."

"How do you know all of this Genya?" Cherrie said getting up.

"I am an agent, I figured it out. Did you kill that man six weeks ago?"

"Yes and I am going to kill you now." Xaldin said throwing his one of his many lances at Genya.

The lance that was thrown flew through the air as Genya caught the metal spear. Xaldin was shocked at this, no one had caught one of his lances before. Cherrie looked back at Genya, as his eyes shone a golden colour. The girl thought that this was a little strange to him as the man dropped the lance and pulled out a sword. This sword was long and was flowing in a dark purple energy. Xaldin smiled as the two men locked their weapons into each other. Their bodies ran into each other with blinding speeds.

However, Genya managed to best the lancer. The force of the blond? Blond man. Cherrie looked at the man for one second. She stopped to rub her eyes, then when she looked again; he had completely changed. His suit had completely gone, in it's place was a old looking black clothing that someone in the Renaissance would wear. Complete with a cape. His hair was now long and blond, gorgeous. His eyes were now a golden colour. Xaldin saw this new form and smiled he soon vanished away though.

"Hump, I thought there was more bit to him." the blond said.

"What happened to you?" Will said.

"Oh." he said noticing the blond locks that had appeared on his head, "This is my true form. I locked my power away thirty years ago, so Dracula's servants could not find me. It is nothing."

"What are you?" Cherrie said admiring those beautiful pools of colour.

"A Dhampir and the son of Dracula."

"What!? You mean, you're a monster?" Cherrie said.

"No, you can trust me. Graham is the monster of this world."

"Will he turn into a Heartless?" the girl asked.

"Probably not." Alucard said.

"So do we call you Alucard or Genya now?" Will asked.

"I am not bothered to be honest."

"Alucard it is then." Cherrie said.

"Fine, let us get moving though. We are near the Castle Keep."

As the group continued their trek to where Graham was, they found themselves bombarded by new monsters. The first that they encountered was a creature called an Erinys. This was an angel with a crimson body, armour and wings. They were all female and held a large lance and shield. For a Goddess of revenge as they are described in the hunting books, they are very easy to take out. They swooped down from the air with their weapons ready for the assault, but Alucard used his sword to attack them and they died within a few strikes.

The next monster looked a bit like a light purple Devil with a trident. These were called Lubicants. These creature from hell let out a giant screech as they hit the ground dead from Cherrie's Keyblade. They were no match for it. This was of few instances that the newbie felt she could destroy a creature that was not a Heartless. She knew that she had to, but a part of her inside still said that she shouldn't. She would have to get used to it though, not all of the worlds have the Heartless.

The Demonic Lord was next. A giant scary looking Demon that was more bark than bite for the group. Most of the monsters were easy to destroy in this world. Both Will and Cherrie had more problems with fighting the Heartless then fighting these things. The last monster that they encountered before reaching the Castle Keep was a creature known as the Final Guard, and guard was right. This thing was a giant walking piece of scrap metal. That's what it sounded like when it walked. It was so huge that the thing could barely fit into the room. Which begs the question, how did it get in here if it's so huge? It carried a giant sword that was way taller than the average person. Even Alucard, standing at 6'4'' ish was still smaller than that sword.

The Final Guard began to attack with the massive sword, as it did the Dhampir attempted to turn himself into a bat and fly over the monster, then attack it from behind. Well that was his plan, it didn't turn out too well. The moment of transformation was a failed attempted. His body began the process, but something didn't follow through. As he tried to transform, Cherrie could see that the Dhampir had wings. These wings looked tattered and painful. As he pulled them out the Dhampir was clearly in a state of serious pain. This let the blond man to get struck by the massive sword. Alucard's whole body was catapulted back as the blade swung.

Will began to charge up a strength ruin again. He threw the spear at the beast, the spear hit the massive golden monster. No death though. He charged up a second one in the other lance and tossed it at the monster. It was still standing. It wasn't until the group heard the sound of a high voltage lightning bolt when the beast finally fell to the ground. As the creature crumbled to the ground, a white haired man stood on the opposite end of the beast. The creature acted like a wall between the group and this white haired man.

 _ **Servine; So who's the white haired guy? If you have played the Castlevania games it's not a big surprise. But if you haven't then, it will be cool as I try to explain his ability. I may have just given it away to a few of you...Oh well.**_

 _ **Willgm; You idiot.**_

 _ **Servine; Shut up. Goodbye.**_


	12. Chapter 10- Strange transformations

_**Servine; Right let's get on with this.**_

Chapter 10- Strange transformations and new abilities

A blue orb flew into the air from the body of the Final Guard and into the body of the white haired guy. That alone was strange. The white haired guy's eyes turned from a grey colour to a bright blue for a split second as the orb went into his body. The man soon realised that Alucard was injured, so he raced over to help the Dhampir. He knelt down over the blond male and he placed his hands over the massive cut wound that was left by the Final Guard. His hands and eyes began to shine a golden yellow as the wound began to heal, very slowly.

Cherrie looked at the man in the white coat and began to wonder, who was this guy.

"I guess you figured out how to project your Enchanted Souls." Alucard said.

"Yeah, it took a while. I figured it out after I got the Giant Worm sou- Wait...Genya?"

"Yes."

"Why do you look different?"

"That form was just because I locked my true power away."

"Ah."

"Can someone tell me,WHO IS THIS GUY?" Cherrie said.

"Oh, my name is Soma Cruz. That power that you saw was my Power of Dominance."

"Dominance?" Cherrie said.

"Yes, Soma has the ability to absorb the souls of the monsters that he has destroyed. The souls have their own unique abilities. The Lightning Doll gives him the ability to shoot powerful thunder from his fingertips. Which his what killed the Final Guard." Alucard explained as Will fetched his lances.

"I still weakened that thing down though."

"Yes, they are much tougher. Taking about three to four hits from my lightning attack." Soma said as Alucard's wound finally healed.

"So, where is Graham?" Alucard said getting up.

"He's in the Castle Keep, MY rightful throne."

"Soma."

"Sorry."

"What's this all about?" Will asked.

"Soma is Dracula."

"Don't say it like that."

"But where's the ascent, the cape, red eyes, fangs?" Cherrie said.

"He is reincarnated into Soma's body." the Dhampir said.

"So he's your father then?" the girl said.

"Can we really say that?" Soma said.

"I'm not sure." the blond replied, "Richter, is Graham up there?"

 _'He's casually drinking wine.'_

"Excellent!" Soma said.

"Where did he come from?" Cherrie asked.

"My pocket, I think." Alucard said.

"They like hiding in pockets." Soma said.

 _'It's comfy in there.'_ the brunette ghost said as he flew away.

The group continued on, they were getting close now. The only reason why Soma wasn't kicking Graham's ass right now was he thought that he needed a new soul to destroy him. His Guardian Souls were a bit low in numbers. He needed more of them in his arsenal. The Power of Dominance comes with four soul types. Bullet, Guardian, Enchanted and Ability. Bullet Souls are red, they are physical attacking souls. Attacks like Claw Strike, which comes from a Werewolf, falls under this category. Guardian Souls are blue, these are defensive souls and familiars. Abilities like the Final Guard comes from the golden giant that Soma just destroyed. Enchanted Souls are a gold colour, these are elemental souls. Hellfire and Dark Inferno come under these. The Ability Souls are special and rare souls. They typically come from monsters that are rare to find, like the Hippogryph soul, which allow Soma to use Richter's High Jump ability. These souls work in the background of Soma's body and they don't use any of the magic that runs in his bloodstream. These give Soma's eyes a grey look because of this reason. The different souls give Soma's eyes a different colour when in use.

As they came into the throne room, Cherrie became nervous. The room was decorated like a real medieval palace, it had fancy expensive décor. Graham sat on the throne. Soma's throne, apparently. The white haired man looked at his former colleague as he arose from the chair. Graham was a man who was tall, wore a white suit and a blue tie. He had a white scarf and greyish hair. The man was bleeding with evil energy to the point that he was glowing with it.

"Um...Graham, you know you're glowing, right?" Soma said.

"Yes, this is my new power! Isn't it wonderful, the power of the Dark Lord."

"You are not Voldemort." Soma said.

"I am now."

"Who's Voldemort?" Cherrie whispered.

"A douchebag that Graham likes." Alucard said.

"The souls of my Demons are in you, return them to me." he said.

"I would if I knew how, I would do it right now if I could." Soma replied.

"You shouldn't have stolen my Demonic babies."

"Look who's the selfish bastard."

"How dare you!?"

Graham levitated into the air and he started to throw a load of dark fireballs at the white haired man. Soma ducked them and he raced over to the other man with a giant sword in hand.

"Should we help Soma?" Cherrie asked Alucard.

"Soma has to do this alone."

"Why?"

"Defend his title, also he hates Graham."

Soma's sword missed its target. The older man teleported in a red light just as Soma came to swing his blade. Graham smiled as he managed to hit the white haired Dracula with the flames from his Dark Inferno. However, Soma recovered pretty quickly and he attacked. The albino's eyes went to a golden colour as he allowed the flames from Hellfire to hit Graham. The two of them smiled as the older man let out another fireball and Soma let out another Hellfire. The two fire attacks collided and exploded in the middle, but one of Soma's Hellfires was not extinguished by the explosion and it hit the older man. Soma shot lightning from his fingertips as Graham got back up from the last attack. The man's body was smacked against the wall as he got back up he smiled. He created a three Dark Inferno fireballs at a time and allowed them to circle around him. Soma saw through his pattern, so he ducked to attack the man with his giant blade.

This fight went on like this for a while until Graham stopped letting the Dark Infernos fly all over the room.

"I don't believe it. How did you master all of those souls?"

"I didn't use all of them."

"I am Dracula!"

"No you're not."

"Yes I am!" he said

That was when all the blood in his body started to spit from his arms and legs, until his body had transformed. His new form looked like...yeah. It had three separate bodies. One was the left side, the other the right, the third was Graham in the middle. The left and the right sides looked identical, but they operated as separate. They were both white girls, from first glance. They had giant hands and claws. They were connected by the eye sockets. Graham was fused with the two of them in the mangled mix of muscle and blood.

"What the fuck?" Soma said.

"What is that thing?" Cherrie said, "I think I might be sick."

"No one would blame you." Will said, "You want some help now Dracula."

"No, I want to fight him alone." Graham said, his voice didn't even qualify as a voice. It sounded more like a dinosaur's roar.

"I'm fighting."

"Fair enough." Soma said.

Both Cherrie and Alucard soon joined in afterwards. Graham was not pleased with the sudden gang up, so he summon a bunch of skulls at the top of his head. This cloud randomly shot out powerful blasts of lightning. Cherrie was the first one to be hit by the thunderous blast. She recovered quickly for a rookie and she started to smack the hell out of the thing.

Will began throwing powerful combos with his lances. They were that amazing Soma thought that he was preforming some kind of death dance. Alucard attacked where Graham was in this giant mess. His cape fell off from his shoulders, revealing the tattered wings that lay flat against his back. Graham used the left side of his new body to grab the Dhampir by the painfully sore wings. The halfling tried to escape from the creature's grasp but couldn't without either damaging the wings even more or having Graham tare them off. Will threw his lance at the creature's hand, the thing dropped Alucard and Graham was beginning to get mad. He grabbed the young girl and threw her into the wall, knocking her out cold.

Soma nearly ran to her, but Graham went for the same attack on the albino. However, Soma managed to dodge the giant hand as it came towards him. Soma smacked Graham as Alucard recovered from his wings being pulled at. Will tossed the lance right at Graham. The lance managed to hit his throat. But he was still alive, being fuelled by the dark power that consumed him in the first place. The albino summoned a giant lady with a sword to smack the body of Graham few more times, whilst Alucard hit the two sides of the monster.

"No, how could this-? AHHHHH!" he said as he whole transformed body lit up in blue flames.

 _ **Servine; By the way, I have changed a lot of things regarding Soma's souls. Because this arc is based on the Castlevania SPA story that I plan to be doing. A lot of his souls had to be changed. You can't have a soul that gives him +3 in Intelligence or any other stat raiser souls.**_


	13. Chapter 11 The Chaos

_**Servine; Yeah I really didn't know how to describe the final form of Graham's . It's inventive KONAMI very inventive. (and disgusting) I still don't understand why he can transform, but oh well. He's the final chapter.**_

Chapter 11-The chaos

After Graham's death strange black orbs flew around the room. The orbs almost looked like they had spider's legs and there were a lot of theses orbs. Just floating like they were agitated at something. Until they found a new body.

Soma.

The poor albino was forced to take in all of that dark energy. One person could only handle so much darkness before it corrupts them and Soma didn't know his limits. His whole body began to glow as his Power of Dominance drew in all of the dark energy. Soma fell to the floor. Will walked over to the struggling man. Before the lancer could get close he was cast way by an immense power as Soma stood up. His eyes had turned a pinky red colour, a symbol of possession. Having Dracula's eyes. The pink was the possession and the red was Dracula.

Once Alucard noticed that Soma had been taken, he became nervous. He knew he was in a bad condition to face his father. His wings were tattered and a lot of his abilities come from the condition of his wings. Bat transform was one of them, Back-dashing, he used his wings for that. Also a lot of his abilities were asleep right now, they haven't realised that Alucard is in his true form right now. He couldn't turn into a wolf, cast lightning or fire spells, no Dark Inferno, he could only use Soul Steal on weaker enemies, no Dark Metamorphosis, no Telekinesis and his Super-strength was not as strong.

Dracula was at full power, just like he was in the fight of 1999. Giant dragon form and all of that, including all of Soma's souls. It was a scary thought for anyone.

"Soma what the hell?" Will said.

"Soma is not-...AHH!"

Soma was fighting back for control over his body. The young adult didn't think that he could win.

"Piss off, your body is mine boy and it has been since birth." Dracula struggled to say.

"Well, I'm not letting you take it. Will, smack me."

"What?"

"Just do it!" he said as tears fell from his possessed eyes.

Will did as he was asked as he smacked Soma with his spear. The man was launched into the wall. The lancer could see the albino's idea. Soma was trying to force Dracula out of the control spot. This could back fire and this might knock Soma's soul out instead of Dracula's.

Luckily it worked. Soma's eyes were still funny. They had lost the redness from them, but they were still pink. So Dracula could come back to seize control at any second.

"Genya what do we do now?"

"Julius found a strange door in the Floating Gardens. He sensed a large amount of dark energy from there, he thinks it might be the heart of the castle."

 _ **'That's a scary thought.'**_ Dracula laughed.

"Oh shut up. Right, come on Will."

"Wait, why me?"

"It's either you or Genya, one of you needs to look after the newbie."

"I shall take care of her, then Mina can heal her." Alucard said.

"Good, looks like you're with me."

The two of them used the local teleporter to get to the Floating Gardens quickly. Soma found a door that wouldn't open before for, also it had a note.

 _'Soma, come this way. I have found a portal to another dimension...Maybe. Also, nice work with Graham.'_

"How did he know that?" Soma said as he turned the piece of paper over.

 _'The ghosts you moron.-Julius.'_

"Of course." Soma sighed.

"So what's the plan then?" Will asked as Soma opened the door.

"Well, we rendezvous with Julius first and go from there. But first."

Soma's eyes turned from that pinky possessed colour to a deep blue as a skeleton Chinese dragon appeared in the sky. Will put his lances in a battle position as it came to swirl around Soma. The dragon held what looked like a chibi Soma on it's shoulders as it flew around the area.

"Will, meet Kutone. He's a Quetzalcoatl. Isn't he cute?" he said as Will noticed that Soma's eyes were still blue, because Kutone was out.

"Yeah..."

Only a mother could love that thing. Kutone continued to float around his master as the two of them got to where Julius was. It wasn't that much of a walk, but the old Belmont stood there in wait as Soma walked into the room first.

"Hello Kutone." Julius said and the dragon roared as a reply.

"So where is this other dimension?" Soma asked

"Beyond this door." he pointed to the door at the opposite end of the room, "I don't know what you will find beyond it, but it's filled with darkness."

"Ok, come on Kutone." he said and the dragon roared.

Will followed behind the dragon and the albino. Once the two of them walked into the next room there was a giant portal already opened.

"So, why did you summon Kutone?" Will asked.

"So Julius didn't notice my possessed eyes. His senses are distracted by all the dark aura in the area, so the feeling of Dracula just slipped right passed him."

"And what do you mean by sense?"

"Oh, the Belmont family have this Perception ability, it allows them to feel the presents of a monster or a dark aura. In the case of Simon Belmont, he could sense people's desires, so he could pluck out the servants of Dracula."

"That must be nice."

"Nah, he was pissed off all the time apparently."

"Oh."

The two of them entered the portal, on the other side was not what they were expecting. Just the dark aura that this place was emitting was enough to make any normal person throw up, Will was on the verge of doing so. Both Soma and Kutone were fine. The dragon perched himself in the sky for a second as he heard the sound of monsters coming towards them.

The Lubicant came flying to them, but Kutone grabbed the creature in it's mouth, crushing its body. Blood poured from behind the dragon's teeth as he moved his head like a terrier with a toy. The body fell from Kutone's mouth and onto the floor.

The area that they were in barely had any colour at all. The only colour was a light purplish colour, it was like waking through a discoloured castle.

This was the Chaotic Realm. In all its glory.

The realm had some of the monsters from the normal realm that appeared in the castle. Beam Skeletons were a frequent encounter. Not that hard to destroy. More Dead Crusaders, Gladiators, Basilisk. Not the snake either. This was a giant stoning chicken/lizard. Giant Skeletons, they were just golden Creaking Skulls. More Erinys, Succubi, Red Minotaurs, Demon Lords and Final Guards. Also some Slime, for what ever reason there was slime in another realm. There was also Alastor, an invisible massive knight who carried a giant sword. He acted big, but the two of them took him down easily enough. Triton was also down here. He was being carried by his fish subjects, more like they were forced to carry the great King of the sea. There was also fire breathing Fish Heads, how do fish breath fire underwater? The duo may never know. There were also Shadow Knights, black armoured Final Guards that looked was more intimidating than their golden brothers. Stolas was one of the more stranger looking creatures. They were owls crossed with an ostrich, if that was even possible. They could also summon other monsters to battle for them and they could summon lots of them, pain in the asses.

And lastly, Medusa Heads.

Oh god...

They floated around the gear area of the Chaotic Realm, once Soma saw them he immediately sent Kutone to deal with them as the two of them safely made it passed. Well, more Will than Soma. One of them hit the albino and he was strangely catapulted away from the end of the area. Kutone rushed at his master before the albino was killed. Soma landed on one of the gears. The metal gear was laid horizontally and spikes were coming from the wall, Soma was about to be penetrated by the spikes when Kutone came over. The albino grabbed onto the dragon's tail and Kutone pulled his master up from almost death.

They eventually came to another portal, this was when Soma started hearing voices.

"Hi Soma."

"Mina?"

"Both me an Yoko are fine you don't need to worry about us, ok?"

"How are you reaching us?"

"Telepathy silly."

"Oh."

"Good luck with what ever is going to fight you."

"Soma." another voice said, "Don't screw up."

"Bit forceful Julius."

"I have to be hard on you. You're like my own son."

"Thanks, you did train me, you and Genya."

"I know. Just don't die."

"I won't."

"Soma." damn there are a lot of voices, "Thanks for buying from me so much."

"That's ok Hammer, you should join the SPA we could use someone like you."

"Maybe, I'll consider it."

"Soma."

"Genya, what's up? How's the newbie?"

"She is fine and alive. Also, do not die on me out there."

"I will survive!" he said in song.

"Good, don't get too cocky now."

"Will?" a familiar voice to the lancer said.

"Cherrie? I see you're awake rookie."

"Hey, I did pretty well in that fight!"

"Yes, yes calm down."

"YAY! um...Good luck out there, I guess."

"Thanks." Will said.

"Let's do this."

The two of them went through the darker portal and were teleported to another area, where the dark aura became even more concentrated. Will tried not to throw up as all of Soma's souls were ripped from his body and Kutone vanished.

"KUTONE!" he screamed.

Chaos was holding the souls, Soma pulled out his sword and began slashing at the angelic statues that held the souls. He went for the blue souls first, so he could get Kutone back. Will began to attack the statue until the souls were released and returned back to Soma. The albino resummoned Kutone back to battle and the dragon started to attack the other statues, forcing this giant thing to give them back.

Once the souls had been released, the creature exploded with a mass amount of white light, until it transformed.

Chaos was just a black sphere. This sphere was guarded by spikes and a rock dragon. First the two of them had to destroy all the eyes that were at the four corners of the beast. Once that was done the rock dragon came out from the core, Soma started to attack the eyes. Kutone began attacking the rock dragon that was threatening his master and when all the spikes had flown off the core Will attacked the black sphere with his lance.

With their combined efforts the creature fell and the two brave warriors fell into darkness.


	14. Chapter 12- Goodbyes and hellos

_**Servine; This is going to be my last chapter with you guys for a while, I hope you enjoyed the Castlevania portion of this story. Let's finish this arc.**_

Chapter 12- Goodbyes and hellos

The lancer slowly opened his eyes. He found himself back on the Gummi Ship. He lay in a bed with the Dhampir on the roof.

"ALUCARD! What the hell are you doing here?"

"With a lot of persuasion." he said as he walked down the celling.

The Dhampir didn't have his cape on and the lancer could clearly see that his wings were not in the best of conditions. Both wings were tattered up, blistered and looked painful. His left wing looked dislocated and there was signs that the wing had been bleeding, possibility from when he was pulled up by them.

"Whatever I don't really care any more."

Cherrie walked into the room with the most biggest smile on her face, "Oh you're awake."

"So, why is he coming with us?"

"I said that Aerith would heal his wings. Turns out Yoko can't learn healing magic and Mina can't heal that type of a wound."

"Yes, but we are taking him out of his own world Cherrie."

"So, he needs healing."

"I don't care. Send him back."

"He already knows too much."

"I don't care. Send him back."

"He could help up on our search for-"

"Send him back!" Will said through his teeth.

"By the way Soma is ok. He gave us this." the Dhampir held a red crystal in his hand, "It is a summon gem."

"What does it summon?" Will asked.

"Bahamut, a dragon from the Blue Planet."

"That's a different planet from your world, how did he get that?"

"I contacted Yen Sid and he claims that the crystal has been on Alucard's planet for hundreds of years. It arrived on a meteor, way long ago." Cherrie said.

"Well that was nice of the albino. So, you're coming with us them?"

"I assume so. We're already going to a planet called Hollow Bastion." the Dhampir said.

"We're here!" Cherrie said.

"At least she figured out the autopilot." Will said getting up out of bed.

The three of them came out from the Gummi Ship and onto the ground of Hollow Bastion. All of the normal people of the town looked at the Dhampir funny. His wings were flat against his back, but his eyes made the people nervous. Cherrie rushed them all along until they saw Leon, who was standing by Scrooge McDuck.

"Leon, Leon, LEON!"

"What?"

"Do you know where Aerith is?" Cherrie said.

"She's with Merlin...Who is this?"

"Oh, it's my new friend Alucard. He's a Dhampir."

"You do not go around telling people that Cherrie."

"Sorry."

"You mean a half Vampire. Oh god. Don't introduce him to Yuffie, please."

"Why?" Will said.

"You'll see." the man said as he walked away.

The three of them went over to Merlin's house. It was more like, Cherrie dragged Alucard there. She held the blond's hand and pulled him to the house. By shear coincidence, Yuffie jumped down from the buildings. They were so close to Merlin's house. The ninja didn't give them any grief until they were inside.

"What's up and who's this?" the ninja said.

"This is Alucard the Dhampir."

Will face palmed before Yuffie gasped.

"No way, does he sparkle!?"

Alucard blinked several times at the stupidity of that question. Does he sparkle? Where did she get that idea from?

"No, I am not friends with the sparkle affect."

"WHAT? But you should."

"I only lose half of my power during the daytime, I do not twinkle like an 80s club disco ball."

"Rude...But you should, what about burning?"

"I do not burn either."

"You sound very old."

"I am over 900 years old thank you."

"Damn that's old."

"Yuffie please, you shouldn't say things like that." Aerith said as she entered the room.

"Aerith, could you fix his wings so we can return him home." Will said.

"Now you're the one being rude Will. Let's take a look."

The woman examined the wings, when she touched them, Alucard gave a sharp hiss to the woman. His fangs were longer than she expected them to be.

"I need to numb the pain."

"Just knock 'im out." Yuffie said.

"No, that might not work."

Aerith thought for a second, then she clicked her fingers and she raced into the kitchen. Eventually, she came back with some tea. She gave the cup to her patient and sat down next to him.

"It's made from passionflower. It will help you fall asleep so I can work on your wing. I hope you like tea."

"I have not had it for a long time." he said sipping the liquid, "Where did you get the twinkle idea from?"

"This!" she stuffed a book in his face.

He read the title of the book, 'Twilight.' He opened the book and he skipped to a random chapter. It just happened to be the part when the main character finds out that her lover is a Vampire, and yes he sparkled. Alucard's reaction is as followed. He blinked a few more times, twitched then clicked his fingers to make the book set a blaze.

"Oh, I guess fire has been awakened." he said.

"HOW COULD YOU!?"

"That book made a mockery of my species. We are not fairies."

"Don't argue and _you_ , drink the tea." Aerith said forcefully.

After he drank the tea, Alucard fell into a deep sleep and Aerith got to work on fixing the Dhampir's wing. He looked so cute.

Aerith began feeling across his wings, as she did so she found that both of the wings had been dislocated. The left one more than the right. She was worried for him. She popped the both of them back into place, but she knew that it would take a long time for them to heal. She gave them a quick bath to tidy them up a little bit and to make them feel relaxed. He began to awaken at the end of his treatment. Aerith gave a bottle of pain killers, protein and vitamin C pills to Cherrie.

"Give these to him once a day. Also, you might want to stop by Olympus at some point, they are having a tournament soon. Leon and Cloud are going to be there. They have a very good medical staff for the little Dhampir."

"Ok." Cherrie said.

The three of them returned to the Gummi Ship and Cherrie hit the button to blast them all off at full-speed. Forcing both Alucard and Will to hit against the back of the Gummi Ship.

 _ **Servine; Here you go, you can have it back now.**_

 _ **Willgm; yippee. (sarcastic.)**_

 _ **Servine; I shall see you all later bye. Also I didn't mean to insult any Twilight fans out there, but what Alucard said was true.**_

 _ **Willgm; I agree with him.**_


End file.
